Travel is an essential part of everyday life and today most journeys are multimodal.? It is the total travel experience that counts and integrated transport must reduce the inconvenience of transfers between modes.? Most research and many publications on transport policy advocate sustainable transport; but the priority given to integration has been negligible.? Yet integration is one of the most important means to advance sustainable transport and sustainability more generally.While integrated transport systems are seen to be an ideal; there is a failure to make the transition from policy to practice. The authors argue that the achievement of sustainable transport is still a dream; as an integrated transport policy is a prerequisite for a sustainable transport system. It is only when the two concepts of sustainability and integration operate in the same direction and in a positive way that real progress can be made.In this book; transportation experts from across the world have addressed the questions about what is integration; why is it so important and why is it so hard to achieve? The book provides an in-depth analysis of these issues and it aims to provide a better understanding of the subject; about what should be strived for; about what is realistic to expect; and about how to move forward? towards a more integrated provision of transport infrastructure; services and management.
#38324 in eBooks 2010-08-31 2010-08-31File Name: B003R0LC3O
Review
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. Fascinating history of a large family in turbulent timesBy Ans KoolenEdmund de Waal. a well-known potter. inherited a collection of 264 netsuke. small delicately carved Japanese objects. originally intended as a counterweight with a small bag on one side and the netsuke on the other. worn around the sash of a mans kimono. At the end of the 19th century they became all the rage in Europe as collectors items. The author desribes how the collection got into his family and what happend to it over the years. By doing so. he traces back his familys fascinating history. He conjures up the atmosphere in Paris and Vienna. describes in great detail homes and daily life of a super rich family. from their beginnings as bankers in Odessa to their dispersal into various countries. Especially the period around the second world war. in which everything is taken away from this Jewish family. is very moving. I found the beginning a little slow reading. but after a while I really got sucked into this story and often felt like a fly on the wall.1 of 1 people found the following review helpful. A FAMILY WORTHY OF BEING REMEMBEREDBy Gatas LargasMore than any account I have come across. this book depicts the horror a prominent. wealthy Jewish family experienced during the Nazi takeover of Eastern Europe. It also. on a very personal level. depicts the anti-semitism that existed long before the arrival of Hitlers army. Many of us grew up thinking that Hitler was some kind of aberration with his desire to obliterate the Jewish population when he was actually just fulfilling the fantasy of many people in many different parts of the world. I especially liked de Waals way of exploring Paris. Vienna. Japan. England and Russia in order to physically stand in the places where events occurred. When he visited Odessa at the end of the book and realized that it wasnt the ghetto so often depicted. he turned the whole "Jewish question" on its head. Coincidentally I watched the film "The Woman in Gold". another true story of loss in the Ringstrasse of Vienna. and it served to further fill in the history we are never taught in schools. By focusing on the netsukes his ancestor collected rather than one particular family member. he managed to avoid an over-sentimentalized look at the time period. His clear-eyed recounting of events revealed a family of resilience. hope and strength--a family that survived through adaptation as well as assimilation.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. The objects got lost... but the family tale is captivatingBy yoniThis book reminded me of the movie The Red Violin. which traced an instrument throughout its life of 4 centuries. The netsuke collection in this book is harder to connect with. as it contains >250 pieces. each possibly with its own story and so the tale can only begin logically with a collection rather than at the source of each piece. Which is why that part of the tale is weak or nonexistent. rather intangible. and ultimately makes the story fall flat at the end as there is very little to connect the objects between the then and now. Also the violin was intimately interwoven with its owners lives as it is not just a tactile piece of art but an instrument of music-making. a livelihood.That being said. the Euro-centric journeys of the objects and their owners are compelling on their own. and. if he were willing to let go a bit. the author might have been able to make a more cohesive framework around just that storyline. The history and drama make for some very satisfying moments.I dont understand the need to posses objects or the joy it brings people. and I didnt dig all the French jargon. At times. especially in the climax of the story. I felt the netsuke and objects in general were more important to this family than the people around them. Im not sure that was a point the author was trying to make about himself or his ancestors. Which depressed me.
