Street Fight, by Jason Henderson

Abstract

Street Fight By Jason Henderson University of Massachusetts Press, 2013 Reviewed by Andrea Broaddus Nowhere are tensions between motorists, bicyclists and buses higher than in San Francisco, the birthplace of the freeway revolts, the Transit First ordinance, and Critical Mass. In Street Fight, geographer Jason Henderson offers a fresh perspective into the battle for limited urban road space, delving into the ideologies underlying the politics of mobility. Released this spring, his first book proves a provocative read for those engaged in sustainability and urban livability debates. It is no secret that transportation planning is a politically charged realm. Henderson argues that one must dig deeper than politics to understand and intervene effectively, especially if one aims to challenge the politics of automobility. Automobility is understood as the use of automobiles as the primary mode of transportation, together with the built environment supporting their use, and the everyday attitudes and assumptions of a society dependent upon car use. In the US, this concept is so much embedded in our lives that it seems to be common sense and even inevitable. Henderson writes: In considering transportation, one cannot transcend ideology or hope that it goes away. It is not enough to acknowledge that transportation is simply political.… One must also comprehend the underlying ideology guiding the various political positions with respect to transportation and mobility (p. 6). In his first chapter, Henderson discusses transportation planning as a political discourse dominated by ideologically-charged points of view. Invoking Harvey, Davis, and LeFebvre, and building upon Sheller and Urry’s “new mobility paradigm,” he argues that one must grasp the ideological assumptions about mobility before it is possible to understand how and why transportation decisions are made. He outlines the three competing political ideologies—progressive, neoliberal, and conservative—and their different normative visions of mobility and urban space. Proponents of these ideologies compete in the political realm by invoking the norms, values, and attitudes embedded within their own perspectives. The book’s broad aim is to deconstruct each ideology of mobility, make plain its assumptions, and trace how it has shaped the built environment.