| Popis: |
During the 1920s, innovations in traffic regulation and the implementation of major traffic street plans greatly facilitated urban motor vehicle movement, but rising automobile ownership and usage, paralleled by a gradual, and then accelerating, decline in public transit patronage, resulted in a continuing flood of new motor vehicles on urban streets. Traffic congestion inevitably returned and intensified. Worried city officials and local business interests, particularly those situated in the downtowns of America’s cities, turned to transportation planning and engineering experts for solutions. One new potential solution was at hand, suggested by the recreational parkways designed for pleasure driving—the freeway. It ultimately was to sow the seeds of a revolution in urban highway construction. This revolution was enabled by the rise of state and federal motor fuel taxes. But access to this funding required a shift in control over metropolitan freeway development from cities to state highway engineers focused almost exclusively on the high-speed movement of urban traffic. |
