Jason Henderson

The Politics of Mobility and Business Elites in Atlanta, Georgia

In this paper I examine how the politics of mobility is an important factor when considering the contentious nature of urban growth debates. By a politics of mobility I mean the political struggle over what type of transportation mode—be it automobile, transit, or walking—is developed in a city, and how urban space is configured to make various modes functional. More importantly, the politics of mobility is an extension of competing and contested ideologies and normative values about how the city should be configured and for whom. I provide a case study of Atlanta, Georgias business elites and their negotiation of the politics of mobility as they confronted a mobility crisis of congestion and air pollution. This paper provides a platform for further comparative research on urban growth debates in an era of increasing environmental and social problems stemming from transportation policy.

The Greening of Mobility in San Francisco

San Francisco has witnessed a flurry of interest in alternative transportation during the last fifteen years. Much of this interest has been inspired by grassroots movements to envision a new kind of city and act on that vision to foster a “politics of possibility.” This chapter explores the launching of two successful green mobility initiatives: the expansion of the city’s bicycle transportation program and the launching of a citywide car-sharing service. The impacts of these initiatives have been profound, affecting not only travel, parking, and automobile ownership, but also the planning code of the city of San Francisco. These developments point to the important role mobilization by grassroots activists and social entrepreneurship played as prime movers behind the city of San Francisco’s green transportation initiatives.

Bechtel: The Global Corporation

This chapter provides a brief history and overview of Bechtel, the largest builder of megaprojects in the United States. Tracing the company’s 110-years of involvement with megaprojects, I discuss some of the controversy surrounding Bechtel, focusing on how Bechtel is criticized for being too cozy with government and business elites at the helm of the fossil fuel economy, or the organization of the U.S. political economy, and the everyday life around oil, gas, and coal. These controversies are political and not necessarily about Bechtel’s engineering, but have implications in how Bechtel may fare in the future. Bechtel is one of the world’s largest builders of urban rail transit and has a record of work in high speed rail transportation projects, both considered key components for reducing fossil fuel consumption in response to global warming and volatile energy prices. Bechtel has been involved in most of the new urban rail transit systems in the U.S. and is engaged in mega-rail projects in Europe and elsewhere. The chapter will conclude with some thoughts about how Bechtel might be poised to contribute to steering the U.S. away from the last century of access to cheap fossil fuels.