ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the notion of cities as something ‘made’ through networks of connections—through the movement and flows of people in particular—is explored further through the issue of transport. We want to invite you to consider transport as the key to the city: to its historical development, to its late-twentieth-century manifestations, and to our individual engagement with it. Transport does not explain everything about the city—no single perspective will do that—but we think it is a persuasive way of looking at the urban experience: the shape of the city and its growth, its power and inequalities, its connections and disconnections, its myriad networks, and its intensity. Transport mirrors so much of the city—the horror and the romance, as we refer to it in the final section. Indeed, we would argue that transport holds the key to urban sustainability. Although we cannot exhaust that issue here (see Blowers and Pain, 1999 ), it is no accident that the control of transport, and in particular of the car, is increasingly the focus of urban planners worldwide. We hope that by the end of this chapter you will find that transport is an obvious approach to the study of the city. What follows seeks to persuade you that this is indeed the case.
