Exploring how the world moves is the task of Kate Ascher’s new work, The Way to Go: Moving Through Sea, Land, and Air ($35.00). Lusciously illustrated and meticulously researched, it reveals the highly complex technologies that underpin global transportation. How do airplanes and rockets get up into the sky? What really happens under the hood of a car or in the cables above a streetcar? How do submarines generate enough air to stay underwater for so long? What makes high-speed trains move so fast?
Focusing on the machines that underpin our lives, Ascher also introduces the networks that keep those machines in business— the emergency communication systems that connect ships at sea, the automated tolling systems that maintain the flow of highway traffic, the air control system that keeps planes from colliding in the sky. Equally fascinating are the technologies behind these networks: baggage tag readers that make sure people’s bags go where they need to; automated street lights that adjust their timing based on traffic flow; GPS systems that allow us all to know where we’re going. Together these technologies move more people farther, faster, and with less effort than at any other time in history. As our lives and our businesses become more entwined with others’ across the globe, there has never been a better time to understand how transportation works.
Kate Ascher worked at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the New York City Economic Development Corporation, and Vornado Realty Trust EQ before taking up her current position managing Happold Consulting’s U.S. practice. Additionally, she serves on the faculty of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Her former books include The Works: Anatomy of a City and The Heights: Anatomy of a Skyscraper.
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