Car Sick

Solutions for our Car-Addicted Culture

A radical proposal to break the car habit and create a society based round people, not cars.

"Cars cause environmental destruction, provoke stress and tear the heart out of communities. Car Sick provides a page-turning account of how we got into this mess and more importantly charts an attractive way out. If you've got a car, read this book. It will change your views, and could change your life."

—Tony Juniper, Friends of the Earth

The twenty-first century is gridlocked. Mass motorisation has ruptured community ties, bankrupted a nation of family shops, and bred a nation of obese children and adults. Politicians stumble from one transport crisis to the next.

Lynn Sloman proposes a novel way forward—not through the big-bang civil engineering projects, but by getting people to think about their choices, rather than reaching for their car keys.

She shows how de-motorisation works: in place of traffic, it offers neighbourly streets and vibrant city centres. Copenhagen’s decision to create pedestrian streets in the city centre has made it an outdoor theatre, filled with celebration and spectacle even in winter. From small towns like Langenlois in Austria, to the centre of London, de-motorisation is transforming urban surroundings. We do not need to get rid of cars altogether. What we do need is to change the way we think about travel.

Car Sick is a passionate, well-argued case for moving away from a carcentred to a people-centred society.

About the Author

Lynn Sloman was Assistant Director of the environmental pressure group Transport 2000 for ten years until 2002. She now runs a sustainable transport consultancy, Transport for Quality of Life, helping the government, local councils and voluntary groups find ways to cut traffic. She is an advisor to the Board of Transport for London, a board member of the Commission for Integrated Transport, and a board member of Cycling England. She lives in rural mid-Wales—without a car.