Urban Elites and Mass Transportation: The Dialectics of Power

By Allen J. Whitt and J. Allen Whitt

Book Overview

In an unusually systematic approach to the study of urban politics, this study compares three different models of political power to see which can best explain the development of the Bay Area Rapid Transit System in San Francisco and the attempts of Los Angeles to build a comparable system.

Originally published in 1982.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691614318
• ISBN13: 9780691614311
• Release Date: July 2014
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 246 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Book on Origins of SF's BART and Particupatory Planning

<BAT NOTE: Highly Recommended Book on problems of BART'S Blue Ribbon Elitest vs participatory planning of AC Transit of 1960's... This book talks about the orgin and design of BART and its management culture and style....and how its was a solution imposed on East Bay by blue ribbon Elite committee who trusted contract engineering firm while BART hired no independent engineers on its own staff..and the subsequence cost overruns, delay, etc. It also discusses how little BART involved local communities in its planning as contrasted witih AC Transit. It is interesting in light of failure of BART both technologically to live up to its promises, and its social failure to solve Bay Area's transportation problems better than Light Rail/Key system it essentially replaced at a much higher cost. SF Bay Guardian's articles written in 11/97 Chronicle an update of this failure of style and technology of BART It has interesting history about Politics of why BART did not extend to Marin or San Mateo County in its implementation. It particularly as Case Study of particpation the BART vs BERKELEY undergounding battle of 1960's. Book's origin was a PhD thesis at UC Berkeley. I am involved in East Bay transit politics, and it it eire how little the cultures of AC Transit and BART have changed over the last 30 years.... " Alan Hirsch Foundation for Regional Transit. Inc