# Urban Growth and Transportation

## An Urban Growth & Transportation Reading List

Prepared by [Randal O’Toole](/people/randal-otoole)

### Read This First

- ***[The Best-Laid Plans](https://www.amazon.com/Best-Laid-Plans-Government-Planning-Pocketbook/dp/1933995076/)*** by [Randal O’Toole](/people/randal-otoole) (Washington: Cato Institute, 2007) 
Dissects and critiques long-range land-use and transportation planning.

### Transportation

- ***[Street Smart](http://www.amazon.com/dp/141280518X/?tag=catoinstitute-20)*** edited by Gabriel Roth (Oakland: Independent Institute, 2006) 
Collection of essays by 20 scholars supporting the privatization of highways, roads, and streets.
- ***[Mobility First](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0742558797/?tag=catoinstitute-20)*** by Sam Staley & Adrian Moore (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009) 
Presents the latest research on free-market techniques for reducing congestion.
- ***[The Road More Traveled](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0742551121/?tag=catoinstitute-20)*** by Sam Staley & Ted Balaker (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006) 
Makes the case for user-fee-driven transportation policy.
- ***[End of the Line: The Failure of Amtrak Reform and the Future of America’s Passenger Trains](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0844742031/?tag=catoinstitute-20)*** by Joseph Vranich (Washington: American Enterprise Institute, 2004) 
Written by a former Amtrak executive, this book argues that the best way to preserve passenger train service is to privatize Amtrak.
- ***[Megaprojects and Risk](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0521009464/?tag=catoinstitute-20)*** by Bent Flyvbjerg (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003) 
Why major rail and other transportation projects so often cost more and produce less benefits than expected.

### Urban Growth

- ***[Edge City: Life on the New Frontier](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385424345/?tag=catoinstitute-20)*** by Joel Garreau (New York: Doubleday, 1991) 
Still the best book for a lay audience on modern urban trends.
- ***[The Twenty-First Century City](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0847692515/?tag=catoinstitute-20)*** by Stephen Goldsmith (New York: Manhattan Institute, 1997) 
How the mayor of Indianapolis saved taxpayers millions of dollars by privatizing water, sewer, and other city services.
- ***[Land Use Without Zoning](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0963886797/?tag=catoinstitute-20)*** by Bernard Siegan (Lexington, MA: Heath, 1972) 
How Houston successfully operates as America’s largest city without zoning.
- ***[Private Neighborhoods and the Transformation of Local Government](http://www.amazon.com/dp/0877667519/?tag=catoinstitute-20)*** by Robert Nelson (Washington: Urban Institute, 2005) 
How and why private neighborhood associations should replace city zoning commissions in determining land-use policies.
- ***[Abuse of Power: How the Government Misuses Eminent Domain](http://www.amazon.com/dp/1931643377/?tag=catoinstitute-20)*** by Steven Greenhut (Santa Ana, CA: Seven Locks Press, 2004) 
Reviews the modern urban renewal movement and how it has led cities to trod on property rights.