The path to a better, more equitable future of transit begins with the Road to Nowhere.
Paris Marx's invaluable new book explains how and why big tech's utopian transit projects crashed and burned, why these disasters will keep finding funding if they are not opposed, and what the alternative might look like. The last decade has been a trainwreck for Silicon Valley's dreams of mobility.
The book also argues that rethinking mobility can be the first step in a broader reimagining of how we organize our social, economic, and political systems to serve the many, not the few. In response, Paris Marx offers a vision for a more collective way of organizing transportation systems which considers the needs of poor, marginalized, and vulnerable peoples. Technological solutions to social problems and the people who propose them must be challenged if we are to build cities and transportation systems which serve the public good. Road to Nowhere exposes the problems with tech’s visions of the future and argues that we cannot allow ourselves to be continually distracted by technological fantasies that delay the collective solutions we already know are effective. The future of transport is frictionless, sustainable, and according to Paris Marx, a threat to our ideas of what a society should be. Meanwhile visionaries like Elon Musk promise to eliminate congestion with tunnels, and Uber help with flying cars. Micromobility devices like electric scooters will be at every corner, and drones will deliver goods and services. On-demand services like Uber and Lyft will eliminate car ownership. Autonomous vehicles will make us safer, greener, and more efficient. Silicon Valley wants us to believe that technology will revolutionize our cities and the ways we move around.
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