Can the digital revolution change the prevailing private-car-oriented order?
That is the central question asked in the book by WEERT CANZLER and ANDREAS KNIE. And, as I see it, they also answer the question.
But let me start from the beginning. Friends of mine had spoken with enthusiasm about the Oekom publisher and its founder Radloff for a long time. I took those comments seriously, yet had never found time to look a little closer. Until a few emails from friends reached me with actual book recommendations.
After that, I did some really extensive browsing through the Oekom website – and I was truly fascinated, both with the topics/titles and the authors I found. And, without any hesitation, I went ahead and ordered a few books, for instance the one by Anneliese Bunk and Nadine Schubert Besser leben ohne Plastik (The Better Life Without Plastic). (ISBN: 978-3-86581-784-6, first published: 22.02.2016)
Late in February 2016, they also published the small book:
Die digitale Mobilitätsrevolution
(The Digital Mobility Revolution)
The visionary sub-title is:
THE END OF TRAFFIC AS WE KNEW IT.
Since the paper version of the book only has 128 pages, it was the ideal reading material during my nostalgic trip to Augsburg on Regional Trains. I went to the beautiful City Market, then to the Inner City (where I also visited Sina Trinkwalder and her Manomama – All made in Germany, from the threat to the seams) on 4, Moritzplatz.
Last not least, I went to the venerable Augsburg Rosenau Stadium, where, even in my earliest childhood days, I spent many important hours. And behold – the FCA II was beaten to the tune of 0 : 6 by the SpVgg Unterhaching (my new soccer home) – which definitely was a good reason to celebrate in the Riegele near Augsburg Central Station with a Kellerbier.
It was nice. And reading the book during the train trip and back was just as nice. Because it says in an understandable way how our mobility has turned into something askance that is both evil and threatening our future. It also says how the “digital transformation” can and will help us to at least avoid the worst of it.
As I see it, the book is absolutely “state of the art”. It describes the current situation in a very rational way and makes short shrift of a number of very popular prejudices. It shows solutions that give you optimism, yet it also shows the absolute necessity for change. This is true both for our administrative, legal and bureaucratic world and our social (collective) and personal (individual) habits.
The authors Weert Canzler and Andreas Knie deserve praise for having written a book that is more exciting than some criminal stories, regardless of the subject matter being so demanding. And I also have a few suggestions when it comes to the content – perhaps for the second edition.
For persons who actually think about our mobile future, the book is certainly a must. This is, for instance, also true for persons who believe they might attend the AktMobCmp. Incidentally, the next one takes place in Augsburg on May, 20th and 21st!
RMD
(Translated by EG)
P.S.
Here is the Link and some information on the book.
Weert Canzler, Andreas Knie
Die digitale Mobilitätsrevolution
Vom Ende des Verkehrs, wie wir ihn kannten
144 pages, oekom verlag
München, 2016
ISBN-13: 978-3-86581-754-9
Published: 22.02.2016
The use of mobile devices increases all the time. More and more often, our smartphone will decide how we get from A to B. If you need a taxi, you use your Taxi-App and book online with services like Uber. In the future, the digital presence will be the determining factor: if something is not digitally published or available, it simply does not exist. Through digitalization, the cards in the game of transportation choice are re-shuffled. Since renting systems get more and more attractive and the car is in direct competition for customers with railways, busses and bicycles on shared digital platforms, the power structure within the transportation sector will change drastically. Consequently, the technological characteristics of cars will mean less and less. The authors show ways and chances of this network in post-fossil mobility.
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