Understanding Professionals, Politicians and The Society in The Motorized World - and How To Help Them

Hermann Knoflacher

The paper is a summary about the paradigm change which is on the way in the motorized society and the related professions today. How the enormous losses of human life from accidents and air pollution as well as the degradation or the urban environment are tolerated gives rise to the question, what is wrong in the related disciplines of transport and urban planning. A brief summary about findings from interdisciplinary research the last five decades describes the way to a better understanding why human behavior has been affected by cars and what chances we have to escape from this “evolutionary trap” of this technological and technical progress. The empirical results of the application of these research findings in many cities are finally listed in a comparison between “positive” and “negative” effects on cities, human societies and cultures and the environment.