Consumers, cars and communities: the challenge of sustainability

Abstract

Abstract The huge subsidization of sprawling development and the unbridled use of the private automobile needs to be brought to the forefront of public policy debate, not left to the excesses of the market‐place. To do this we need citizens‐in‐the‐community, not consumers‐in‐the‐market. The present costly and unsustainable situation of our human settlements is a result of a profound failure in public policy; a failure that resulted when we left the fate of our human settlements to the vagaries of the market‐place. We can no longer rely on the present subsidized, distorted, market‐place system approach to designing, building and operating our human settlements. The consequences have been disastrous for human welfare, health and safety, and the natural environment upon which all life depends.