Is your street or your neighborhood making you feel stressed out, anxious, insecure, or angry? If you want to discover more fulfilling ways of designing your neighborhood, then I have the perfect book for you. And that is Happy City by Charles Montgomery. Welcome to the Urban Mobility Book Review Series, brought to you by the EIT Urban Mobility Academy in collaboration with the Urban Cycling Institute, where we uncover key ideas that keep our cities moving. Each episode picks a book, explains why you should read this book, gives you the big picture, and outlines the key concepts all in the nutshell. This book investigates the effect of urban design on our happiness, and Charles Montgomery comes out overwhelmingly against the effects of sprawl. He forces us to consider the cost that automobility is having on the satisfaction of a city's inhabitants. Quote, we cannot fully understand the effect that the city has on happiness, without considering how it feels to move through it, and how that feeling guides our own behavior. In keeping with the mobility theme of this book review series, we'll focus on the two chapters on mobilizities, especially contemplating the experience of moving through the city, and how that impacts our wellbeing. Is driving really that bad for us? Quote, drivers experience plenty of emotional dividends. When the road is clear, driving your own car embodies the psychological state known as mastery. Drivers report feeling much more in charge of their lives than trions at users, or even their own passengers. But the problem arises in dense cities, when you're stuck in bumper to bumper traffic, and you have no control over the pace of your own movement. Quote, driving in traffic is harrowing for both the brain and the body. The blood of people who drive in cities is a high test stew of stress hormones. The worst of traffic, the more your system is flooded with adrenaline and cortisol. End quote. Adrenaline is exactly akin to stepping on the gas pedal and break at the same time. While adrenaline may be fun on a three-minute roller coaster ride, its damaging health effects can be experienced over a much longer term. So how do you active mode such as walking and cycling compared to sitting and driving? Quote, Despite the obvious effort involved, self-propelled commuters report feeling that their trips are easier than the trips of people who sit for most of the journey. They are the likeliest to say that the trip was fun. Children overwhelmingly say that they prefer finding their own way to school, rather than being chauffeur. Perhaps it's not surprising in the Netherlands that people feel more joy walking or cycling to work because of the amazing urban design. But the same can be said in a hectic city like New York. So it is clear from research that people hate driving in traffic, but we voluntarily put ourselves in that position every day. It's no surprise that traffic is bad during rush hour. The continuing use of automobiles in urban environments leads us to two problems. One, people not maximizing happiness, though minimizing personal energy expenditure. Two, we are choosing the most energy intensive and polluting ways to get around. But are we just lazy or is it also the way that we design our cities? Sure, distance is a factor, but it's not the only factor. Consider the aesthetics of a large parking lot versus a dense urban street. The design of a mega big box center invites you to drive in park. Yet the equivalent distance on the main street invites you to stroll and look around. Plunder this, quote, if distance alone determines how we move, then the calculus should be different for cyclists. And quote, even when cycling is clearly faster than driving, people still choose to drive. What if we made the cycling journey more pleasant and more beautiful? Montgomery challenges us to design for experiences and not just to reduce travel time. Quote, each of us has a unique set of abilities, weaknesses and desires. Each of us is compelled and thrilled by a unique set of sensations. Each trip demands a unique solution. What if we were to build an environment that provides higher emotional dividends for human power transportation? To build an environment so that the next time we go to the store, an active stroll down the street is much more inviting than driving your car in bumper to bumper traffic. And that's Happy City by Charles Montgomery. Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Urban Mobility Book Review Series by the EIT Urban Mobility Academy in collaboration with the Urban Cycling Institute. And for more books for your bookshelf, please hit the subscribe button and ring that bell! Music