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Confessions of a Recovering Engineer
- Transportation for a Strong Town
- Narrated by: Christopher Douyard
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
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Publisher's Summary
In Confessions of a Recovering Engineer, renowned speaker and author of Strong Towns Charles L. Marohn, Jr., delivers an accessible and engaging exploration of America's transportation system, laying bare the reasons why it no longer works as it once did, and how to modernize transportation to better serve local communities.
You'll discover real-world examples of poor design choices and how those choices have dramatic and tragic effects on the lives of the people who use them. You'll also find case studies and examples of design improvements that have revitalized communities and improved safety.
This important book shows you: the values of the transportation professions, how they are applied in the design process, and how those priorities differ from those of the public; how the standard approach to transportation ensures the maximum amount of traffic congestion possible is created each day, and how to fight that congestion on a budget; and bottom-up techniques for spending less and getting higher returns on transportation projects, all while improving quality of life for residents. Perfect for anyone interested in why transportation systems work - and fail to work - the way they do, Confessions of a Recovering Engineer is a fascinating insider's peek behind the scenes of America's transportation systems.
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What listeners say about Confessions of a Recovering Engineer
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Performance
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- Cliff
- 02-08-22
Well Worth Your Time To Read or Listen To!
Not exactly a sequel; it is a different way of approaching the same material from a more personal perspective. He doesn't just talk about the problem and give a solution (or list of possible solutions); he explains the roots or philosophy of the problems as one who was part of the problem. I am going to either listen to both books again or read the Kindle versions, want to understand them that much. Also, kudos to "Not Just Bikes" YouTube channel for pointing this author out to me!
2 people found this helpful
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- M. Waldon
- 12-14-21
The Engineering Profession is Changing
This is a must read for every engineer and engineering student. It's also a valuable source for city planners, managers, and political leaders.
1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 10-04-21
Very eye opening.
As a county administrator, I find this kind of thoughtful honesty refreshing. I commend the author for his endeavors.
1 person found this helpful
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- Ricardo
- 10-03-21
Just great!
Thank you! This book should be required reading in engineering education. Especially in civil/transportation engineering.
1 person found this helpful
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- Jenna C.
- 02-02-23
Fantastic book of how engineers need to change their ways of thinking
This was a fantastic book explaining on why cities should be built for people and not cars.
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- Arya Pourtabatabaie
- 02-01-23
Good narrator, bad for this book
Unfortunately the narrator has a way of pronouncing things where the presence of an r affects some consonants that might immediately precede it. So you often got passages like "Here at Shtrong Towns, we're ekshtremely frushchrated that the state of our infrashchructure, compels one to djrive on congested shtroads for any errands instead of walking to the groshery store across the shtreet." which normally is fine but since the book happens to be full of such words, it gets... dishchracting pretty quickly.
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- Anonymous User
- 09-25-22
The perfect book for the perfect time
I see potholes wherever I go. Dangerous feeling roads, sidewalks that start and end randomly, nonfunctional public transit, and street crossings that seem out right negligent.
This book provides a brilliant insight into how and why they are like this and how they can change.
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- Janie Biggs
- 09-18-22
Interesting and informative
This book provided insight into why some of the things that frustrate me about how current roads/streets/"stroads" are the way they are as well as a new perspective on how they could be better.
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- Anonymous User
- 09-15-22
If you live in a place, listen to this book.
I am an urban planning student who has just started grad school. Had I been better at math I probably would have gone into traffic engineering rather than planning. I began school very much against public transit and thought roadway spending was far more valuable. Having lived my entire middle class life in a city with subpar transit, this was, frankly, an obvious conclusion to draw. Studying planning caused a vehement about face in my transportation beliefs that makes me embarrassed of the things I said and thought before. For people like me, it often takes a little push to realize that the current roadway expansion and „improvement” practices are not the answer to transportation problems. Let this book be your push!
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- Marshall F.
- 08-31-22
A solid read/listen
This book contains a lot of valuable information. The narrator isn't terribly interesting to listen to, but delivers the information in a clear and reasonably interesting voice. Strongly recommend
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Excellent compendium for pro and enthusiast alike
- By Ostyn on 02-23-19
By: Jeff Speck
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Walkable City
- How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time
- By: Jeff Speck
- Narrated by: Jeff Speck
- Length: 6 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Jeff Speck has dedicated his career to determining what makes cities thrive. And he has boiled it down to one key factor: walkability. The very idea of a modern metropolis evokes visions of bustling sidewalks, vital mass transit, and a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly urban core. But in the typical American city, the car is still king, and downtown is a place that’s easy to drive to but often not worth arriving at. Making walkability happen is relatively easy and cheap; seeing exactly what needs to be done is the trick.
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Interesting topic and thoughtful insight, subpar recording.
- By Andrew Nicks on 05-12-18
By: Jeff Speck
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The High Cost of Free Parking, Updated Edition
- By: Donald Shoup
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 23 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In this no-holds-barred treatise, Donald Shoup argues that free parking has contributed to auto dependence, rapid urban sprawl, extravagant energy use, and a host of other problems. Planners mandate free parking to alleviate congestion but end up distorting transportation choices, debasing urban design, damaging the economy, and degrading the environment. Ubiquitous free parking helps explain why our cities sprawl on a scale fit more for cars than for people. But it doesn't have to be this way.
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A Great Listen
- By abdelrahmanazmi on 08-02-22
By: Donald Shoup
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Happy City
- Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design
- By: Charles Montgomery
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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After decades of unchecked sprawl, more people than ever are moving back to the city. Dense urban living has been prescribed as a panacea for the environmental and resource crises of our time. But is it better or worse for our happiness? Are subways, sidewalks, and tower dwelling improvements on the car dependence of sprawl?
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Bait and Switch
- By Jonathan S on 05-26-19
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Building the Cycling City
- The Dutch Blueprint for Urban Vitality
- By: Melissa Bruntlett, Chris Bruntlett
- Narrated by: Christina Delaine
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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As the world's foremost cycling nation, the Netherlands is the only country where the number of bikes exceeds the number of people, primarily because the Dutch have built a cycling culture accessible to everyone, regardless of age, ability, or economic means. Building the Cycling City examines the triumphs and challenges of the Dutch while also presenting stories of North American cities already implementing lessons from across the Atlantic.
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Simply Fantastic!
- By John Simmerman on 10-01-18
By: Melissa Bruntlett, and others
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Streetfight
- Handbook for an Urban Revolution
- By: Janette Sadik-Khan, Seth Solomonow
- Narrated by: Suzie Althens
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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As New York City's transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan managed the seemingly impossible and transformed the streets of one of the world's greatest, toughest cities into dynamic spaces safe for pedestrians and bikers. Her approach was dramatic and effective: Simply painting a part of the street to make it into a plaza or bus lane not only made the street safer, but it also lessened congestion and increased foot traffic, which improved the bottom line of businesses.
By: Janette Sadik-Khan, and others
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The Death and Life of Great American Cities
- 50th Anniversary Edition
- By: Jane Jacobs, Jason Epstein - introduction
- Narrated by: Donna Rawlins
- Length: 18 hrs
- Unabridged
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Thirty years after its publication, The Death and Life of Great American Cities was described by The New York Times as "perhaps the most influential single work in the history of town planning....[It] can also be seen in a much larger context. It is first of all a work of literature; the descriptions of street life as a kind of ballet and the bitingly satiric account of traditional planning theory can still be read for pleasure even by those who long ago absorbed and appropriated the book's arguments."
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Fantastic text, dull on audio
- By Meghan on 02-13-15
By: Jane Jacobs, and others
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How to Kill a City
- Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood
- By: Peter Moskowitz
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The term gentrification has become a buzzword to describe the changes in urban neighborhoods across the country, but we don't realize just how threatening it is. It means more than the arrival of trendy shops, much-maligned hipsters, and expensive lattes. The very future of American cities as vibrant, equitable spaces hangs in the balance. How to Kill a City takes listeners from the kitchen tables of hurting families who can no longer afford their homes to the corporate boardrooms and political backrooms where destructive housing policies are devised.
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Snobby Socialist New Yorker Gets Hyperbolic
- By Marie on 04-12-18
By: Peter Moskowitz
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Arbitrary Lines
- How Zoning Broke the American City and How to Fix It
- By: M. Nolan Gray
- Narrated by: Stephen R. Thorne
- Length: 7 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The arbitrary lines of zoning maps across the country have come to dictate where Americans may live and work, forcing cities into a pattern of growth that is segregated and sprawling. The good news is that reform is in the air, with states across the country critically reevaluating zoning. In cities as diverse as Minneapolis, Fayetteville, and Hartford, the key pillars of zoning are under fire, with apartment bans being scrapped, minimum lot sizes dropping, and off-street parking requirements disappearing altogether.
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Abolish Zoning
- By Mark Gorbett on 01-07-23
By: M. Nolan Gray
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The Geography of Nowhere
- The Rise and Decline of America's Man-Made Landscape
- By: James Howard Kunstler
- Narrated by: Al Kessel
- Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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In elegant and often hilarious prose, Kunstler depicts our nation's evolution from the Pilgrim settlements to the modern auto suburb in all its ghastliness. The Geography of Nowhere tallies up the huge economic, social, and spiritual costs that America is paying for its car-crazed lifestyle. It is also a wake-up call for citizens to reinvent the places where we live and work, to build communities that are once again worthy of our affection. Kunstler proposes that by reviving civic art and civic life, we will rediscover public virtue and a new vision of the common good.
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Suburbia Jeremiad with poor narration
- By Skyler Chaney on 10-28-20
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Street Smart
- The Rise of Cities and the Fall of Cars
- By: Samuel I. Schwartz, William Rosen - contributor
- Narrated by: Don Hagen
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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With wit and sharp insight, former Traffic Commissioner of New York City, Sam Schwartz a.k.a. "Gridlock Sam", one of the most respected transportation engineers in the world and consummate insider in NYC political circles, uncovers how American cities became so beholden to cars and why the current shift away from that trend will forever alter America's urban landscapes, marking nothing short of a revolution in how we get from place to place.
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Interesting, thought provoking, and hopeful
- By JKuster on 03-07-20
By: Samuel I. Schwartz, and others