Paul Mees, passionate campaigner for public transport and researcher into transport planning, is back with his most cogent, convincing work yet, Public Transport for Suburbia: Beyond the Automobile Age. After being sacked by Melbourne University for criticizing Victoria’s archaic, petrol-focused transport bureaucracy, Mees has found a home at RMIT, and a real sense of peace pervades this stately analysis. Mees argues for rational policymaking geared towards what we meekly term sustainability, but which in its essence entails weaning communities off cars and replacing them with lower-carbon alternatives: train, tram, bus and foot. Special scorn is heaped upon those who claim Melbourne is too decentralized to effectively and efficiently cover with public transport; Mees provides counterexamples from diverse places such as Switzerland, Brazil and Canada. The use of faulty statistics is rife in transport planning and Mees punctures a number of canards. The chapters describing beacons of hope – cities like Toronto and Vancouver – are inspirational. Skilfully paced, well written, a judicious mix of sobriety and passion, Public Transport for Suburbia is a delight to read.
Paul Mees should be knighted and Public Transport for Suburbia is his best book yet. 3½ stars.