Landscape and Urban Planning 62 (2003) 117118

Book review
The Sustainable Street: The Environmental, Human and Economic Aspects of Street Design and Management Since the mid-1990s governments, business, industry and academics have become fond of attaching the word sustainable to ideas, projects, products and promotion. All too often, it is done without careful evaluation of what is meant by the term. This book is part of the International Series on Advances in Architecture by WIT Press, Southampton, UK. It grew out of a meeting of economists, engineers, environmentalists and planners in Bristol, UK (no date given) who were studying the physical, human and economic aspects of contemporary urban streets. The book offers 10 essays, which explore urban streets as systems within the larger urban system. The editors suggest in their preface and in their collection of essays that street systems can contribute to more sustainable urban development through resolving street-related problems, such as air and noise pollution, equal access to employment and urban services, provision of public transport, crime control and enhancement of cultural cohesion. However, despite a title implying otherwise, the book does not dig beyond mere suggestion of this potential. The book is organized into three parts. Part I deals with the physical design of urban streets, and includes a brief historical overview of street design, an essay focused on the schism between street engineering and the design of streets as public space, and a case study of the re-development of a center in post-World War II Bristol. Part II is oriented to social issues related to urban streets, addressing the need to consider and engage youth in street design, the need to recognize urban streets as de-facto arenas for adolescent rites of passage, an exploration of numerous management techniques for reducing peoples feelings of insecu0169-2046/02/$20.00 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

rity on urban streets, and nally an argument, based on principles of social equity, for the provision of public conveniences (toilets) along urban streets. Part III explores issues of access to streets and public transport. It begins with a study of an incremental approach to trafc restraints in the historic city center of Cambridge, UK, follows with a proposal for automated people movers to connect compact, mixed use centers and concludes with an argument for improving central city vitality through equitable multi-modal approaches to transportation planning. Within this collection there are several essays that discuss interesting, although, not particularly innovative strategies, processes, and information. Two authors express the need for a multi-functional approach to street design (Lillebye, Cardenas-Jiron). Such an approach integrates transportation (and closely related economic) functions with diverse social functions and environmental considerations. After a tedious overview of urban design history, Lillebye concludes that the more successful historical examples of urban street design are exemplied in the works of Camillo Sitte, Gordon Cullen and more recently Jan Gehl, streets designed for architectural beauty and social interaction, as well as transport functions. Cardenas-Jiron recounts the heavy emphasis on transportation to serve economic development and the heavy social and environmental costs Chilean cities are now paying. Two essays (Woolley/GathorneHardy/Stringfellow and Kenvyn) document projects and processes that engage youth in the design and programming of streets and other public spaces. They both argue that streets are essential formative spaces for urban youth and should be inclusive of their needs. Two authors (Warren and Jefferson) focus on the need for equitable, accessible public transportation to relieve vehicular loads on inner city streets and allow for pedestrian-oriented commercial districts. Jefferson

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Book review

makes a reasonably convincing argument for frequent, safe and equitable access for urban dwellers to a well distributed and effective public transportation system. He proposes that economic vitality is closely linked to peoples access and mobility. Warrens more far-fetched proposals for automated people movers strung between mixed use neighborhoods are along the lines of American Peter Calthorpes early proposals for Pedestrian Pockets, however, they remain very diagrammatic and land-less, making it difcult to envision how they might t into existing metropolitan areas. Many edited collections suffer from similar problems: uneven writing quality, uneven depth of content, differing subjects that target differing audiences, and a lack of clear focus. In addition to these common problems, this one suffers from a lack of editorial glue. Perhaps the most serious aw, is the lack of denition of the title phrase. The Sustainable Street promises an inquiry into what might make streets remain healthy and vital for generations into the future, but this is not delivered. While there is a preface written by one of the editors that very briey outlines the background, the structure of the book and the content of its essays, there is no introduction to this subject of a sustainable street. What exactly is meant by sustainable street in this book? How is sustainable interpreted differently in the different subject areas of the book? What would a sustainable street be like physically, socially,

operationally? A few of the authors have attempted to tie their work to this subject, however, none spent more than a couple of sentences providing a connection and none linked their conclusions to the subject. By the end of the book (there is no conclusion) one can only speculate as to how these 10 papers contribute to a better understanding of a sustainable urban street. There is without question some useful information, particularly case study examples, most of which reside in the UK, to be found in this book. The editors neglect to identify their audience, however, the content suggests that it may prove to be a useful reference for European town planners and perhaps those international practitioners who may be seeking European examples of planning and management strategies for central city streets. As it is not particularly rigorous or innovative, especially on the physical design side, it is probably less useful for the international academic community. North American buyers will nd the price tag very high. Books that cost in excess of US$ 100 must be creatively designed and replete with beautiful photos, or of very high reference value. This is not a description of this modest collection. Cynthia L. Girling Department of Landscape Architecture University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA
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