I am currently reading Sustainable Transportation Planning: Tools for Creating Vibrant, Healthy and Resilient Communities written by Jeffrey Tumlin. Tumlin, a planner at Nelson/Nygaard penned this wonderful book collecting nearly every useful tool for the layman, neighborhood activist or professional all in one book. Tumlin has penned what I believe to be not only a practical read, but one that also entertains; it doesn’t read like a boring old book of standards. Perhaps one of my favorite quotes comes when Tumlin lays out the logic in having redundant and adaptive systems in our transportation systems and likens them to the human body,

“Strategic redundancy is another key to survival in the natural world. If something is really important, nature produces more than one of it, because as nature knows, stuff happens. Humans only need one kidney, a small but critical organ, but we have an extra in case one gets gored by a wildebeest.”

While the sticker price might scare you away at first, Tumlin has assembled all the tools active transportation planners and activists need to equip themselves in the pursuit of transportation design that is both equitable and logical in it’s execution. Professionals can enjoy a fresh approach while novice or beginner activists can easily learn from one of the industry’s masters.

The seasoned active transportation activist likely won’t find provocative proclamations (except for Tumlin’s conclusions on parking reform which are fantastic) however, the fact that nearly every logical basis for active transportation design an activist needs is collected in one spot is in itself, nearly worth the purchase price of this book.

If you cannot purchase this book, get out to your local library and check it out. It will be worth your time.