Carmageddon

How Cars Make Life Worse and What to Do About It

By: Daniel Knowles

Narrated by: Christian Coulson

A high-octane polemic against cars—which are ruining the world, while making us unhappy and unhealthy—from a talented young writer at the Economist

The automobile was one of the most miraculous inventions of the 20th century. It promised freedom, style, and utility. But sometimes, rather than improving our lives technology just makes everything worse. Over the past century cars have filled the air with toxic pollutants and fueled climate change. Cars have stolen public space and made our cities uglier, dirtier, less useful, and more unequal. Cars have caused tens of millions of deaths and injuries. They have wasted our time and our money.

In Carmageddon, journalist Daniel Knowles outlines the rise of the automobile and the costs we all bear as a result. Weaving together history, economics, and reportage, Knowles traces the forces and decisions that normalized cars and cemented our reliance on them. He takes readers around the world to show the ways car use has impacted people’s lives—from Nairobi, where few people own a car but the city is still cloaked in smog, to Houston, where the Katy Freeway has a mind-boggling 26 lanes and there are 30 parking spaces for every resident, enough land to fit Paris ten times. With these negatives, Knowles shows that there are better ways to live, looking at Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Tokyo, and New York City.

CARMAGEDDON features original reporting from:
Chicago
Detroit
Houston
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
New York
Paris, France
Mumbai, India
Nairobi, Kenya
Tokyo, Japan
London, Birmingham, and Coventry, England

CARMAGEDDON also covers:
Atlanta
Cincinnati
Louisville
Memphis
St Louis
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Copenhagen, Denmark
Lagos, Nigeria
Sao Paolo, Brazil
Singapore

Riveting

This is a great book. He weaves in behavioral economics, economic and social history, and the quirks of consumer behavior. Good luck, Houston! Glad I live in an Eastern city!

I thought the whole book was great. Highly recommended

Quick Paced, mindful of biases

Good performance from the voice actor and a well paced, conversational, informational read. The author acknowledges his biases.

The second half is worthwhile

but the first half was an excruciating slog. I would recommend the book if I were pressed, I guess.