My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher Abrams Press for an advanced copy of this history of automobiles, what they have done to every part of our society, and how we can try to break our dependence on what something that promised us freedom, but has really just trapped us all in place.

My brother drove cross-country in in the spring of 2000. Since then he has pretty much given up on cars and car ownership, renting when needed for vacations, or visits to areas where public transportation doesn't exist. He and his partner, and their children are lucky in that they live in a city where they can used buses and subways, or an occasional taxi if needed. I live more in the boonies, where everything, work, food, and recreation is always a car ride. I wouldn't mind walking, but there are no paths, and biking would be crazy as too many people speed, pull out or are talking on phones, or letting their cars do the driving for them. Bike lanes were once thought of, but expense kept my little town from doing anything, while gas prices keep rising, along with the seas and pollution. How did cars become to control our society? People love to complain about gas prices, car taxes, other drivers, kids and seniors driving, traffic, people on bikes, motorcycles, speed traps, parking and well everything to do with driving, and yet like so many addicts we just keep widening roads, spending more on traffic police, and keep going while nothing changes. Carmageddon: How Cars Make Life Worse and What to Do About It by author and journalist Daniel Knowles looks at the automobiles, how they promised us freedom but have really trapped us in unending cycle of spinning our wheels.

The book begins in Chicago where the author is based, and how Knowles is also blessed with the lack of need for owning a car. Knowles discusses the numerous traffic areas, and ideas in widening roads, but just proves that nothing will really change. Knowles discusses the huge scars that have been slashed into the city displacing people, industry, and creating huge areas to park cars, that do nothing for the cities. Readers travel to Houston, for more of the same, though with even worse traffic, and sprawl, that just again leads to nothing. Cars have more rights than pedestrians, with so many laws being passed that control parking, that parking areas are larger than the areas being built. Knowles traces the development of cars, the money that positioned itself to back cars over people walking, the laws that were created,like jaywalking, just to stop people from crossing streets, getting run over and making automobiles, look bad. From there we look at the problems around the world, and solutions and ideas that are springing up to try and get us away from cars, and if that is at all possible.

A very fascinating book that raises a lot of questions and gets me more annoyed about having to own a car than I expected. So many laws, so many losses of freedom that have been surrendered just to get smog, pay alot of money and seen cities destroyed. Knowles explains everything well, both the good things, and bad things about what cars have done. Not just environmental impact, but vast social changes for people all over the world. I never thought about all the industries that depend on cars, from oil companies, to big box retailers, and of course automobile producers. Nor how it really is a rich person's game, and the poor of course have to waste limited resources just to keep up. Knowles is a very good writer, with a lot of facts to back up his argument, and a lot of different voices discusses what should and needs to be done. I book that I thought would be interesting, but turned out to be far more reflective than I had thought.

Recommended for anyone in urban planning, or thinking about running for local office, or even national office. A book that asks a lot of different questions, and even more a lot of what if questions also.