A little history of urban transportation

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A little history of urban transportation

• TTP 220
• S. Handy
• 4/3/06 and 4/5/06

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Rule 1
Transportation innovation
Higher travel speeds
Outward expansion Lower densities Greater
separation
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Rule 2
Transportation service (road or rail)
Higher site accessibility
Greater development potential
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Rule 3
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Urban Transportation System

• Rise of public transit (1825-1900)
• Walking-Horsecar era (1800 1890)
• Electric Streetcar era (1890 1920)
• Rise of the automobile (1900 now)
• Recreational car era (1920-1945)
• Freeway era (1945 now)
• Fall of public transit (1920 1950s)

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Transit Innovations

• Walking pre-1925
• Omnibus 1820s
• Steam trains 1830s
• Horse-car 1830s
• Electric streetcar 1890s
• Mass transit 1900s in some places
• Motorbus 1920s
• Rapid transit 1950s

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Omnibus
Source http//bus38.free.fr/hist1854eng.html
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Steam Trains
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Horsecar
http//www-sal.cs.uiuc.edu/friedman/canal/Pic032.
htm http//inventors.about.com/library/inventors/
blstreetcars.htm
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Key points about transit so far

• Operated by private companies, with franchise
  given by city
• Because costly, tendency to serve only the best
  paid workers, not the masses
• Often operated in conjunction with land
  development

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Concerns in the late 1800s

• Even with transit, hard to reach work, shops
  speeds only 5-6 mph
• Problems with horse-drawn modes
• Need for mechanical traction, grade separation
• Problems with steam power

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Cable Cars
Sourcehttp//inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsi
te.htm?sitehttp//www.sfmuseum.org/hist1/index0.2
.html23streetcars
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Electric Streetcar
http//americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/exhibition
/exhibition_4_6.html
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Streetcar Systems

• Speeds 3-5 times that of horse cars
• Fixed price of 5 cents per ride anywhere in city
• Film of Market Street in 1905

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Streetcar System Impacts

• Affordable for working class, who could now live
  away from factories
• Led to more outward expansion, e.g. Boston
• 1850 2-3 mile radius, mixed land uses
• 1900 10 mile radius, industrial and commercial
  core surrounded by residential
• Growth in mobility, e.g. avg. trip length
• 1890 7 miles
• 1900 10.5 miles

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Streetcar System Problems

• Many different companies in each city
• The bigger the company, the better?
• Overseen by regulatory agencies
• 5 cent fare as foundation

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Mass Transit
http//www.nycsubway.org/perl/caption.pl?/img/irt/
building-1.jpg http//www.nycsubway.org/irt/irtbl
d.html
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The Fall of Transit

• Irony 1 Great success was also the beginning of
  the demise
• 5 cent flat fare didnt cover cost of expansion
• Systems heavily overbuilt and overexpanded
• Costs of upkeep put off
• Irony 2 Private industry but really a subsidy
  from investors to general public
• Irony 3 Poor management led to dramatic and
  lasting change in form of cities

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The Fall of Transit

• Few industries have risen so rapidly or
  declined so quickly, and no industry of its size
  has had a worse financial record
• J. Vance

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Urban Situation 1900 to 1920

• Massive urban growth
• Fringe growing faster than center
• Increasing criticisms of streetcars

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Changing Views of Streetcars

• Pre-1900 Streetcars as heroes
• Cities encourage with low interest loans, cash
  subsidies, land, long-term franchises
• Post-1900 Streetcars as private companies
  pursuing profits at utter disregard to public
  welfare

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Options for Streetcar Companies following cost
rises during WWI

• Raise fare
• cities wouldnt let them
• Increase ridership, e.g. through land
  speculation
• riders didnt come.
• Get public subsidy
• voters rejected it.
• Result Streetcars reached peak in 1923

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Bay Area Streetcars
Source http//www.trainweb.org/mts/ctc/ctc06.htm
l http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_System
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Motorbus
Sourcehttp//www.baycrossings.com/Archives/2003/0
3_April/paving_the_way_for_buses_the_great_gm_stre
etcar_conspiracy.htm
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Situation in 1930s

• Planners opposed elevateds and subways
• Thought it would make congestion worse
• Thought it would increase centralization
• Criticisms of large investments in subways
• Resistance from growing number of outlying
  merchants
• Depression meant slowdown in urban growth, lay
  offs of urban workers
• Increase in busses trackless trolleys
• Subsidies for highways, education, housing, other
  programs, but not for transit

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1950s Situation

• Role of GM
• Bought up bankrupt streetcar systems in 1920s,
  replaced with busses
• Found guilty of criminal conspiracy in 1950s
• Role of Public Sector
• Bought up streetcar and bus operations beginning
  in depression
• Nearly all systems converted to public by end of
  1950s
• Talk of federal funding for transit but no action

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Rapid Transit
Source http//www.bart.gov/ http//www.flickr.c
om/photos/atariboy/83780413/
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The Rise of the Automobile

• Recreational car era (1920-1945)
• Freeway era (1945 now)

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Recreational car era (1920-1945)
Source http//www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Environm
ent/E_Overview/E_Overview6.htmscenic
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By the 1920s

• Model T
• 600 in 1913
• 393 in 1923
• Auto ownership
• 1 car for every 13 Americans in 1920
• 1 car for every 5 Americans in 1929
• Cheaper to own a house in the suburbs with a car
  than own house in city

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Growth in Auto Ownership
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WWII Drive-Less Campaign
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Freeway era (1945 now)

• After WWII
• Pent-up demand and rising incomes increased
  demand for cars
• Increasing suburbanization increased demand for
  cars

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Growth in Auto Ownership
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Public Sector Support From the Start

• Cars seen as way to decentralize, to get people
  away from ills of the city
• Public investment seen as needed to improve roads
  and reduce congestion

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Why public funds for roads and not transit?

• Seen as quick and cheap in contrast to long-term
  investments in fixed-rail transit
• Highways served both public and private
  transportation
• More in American tradition of individualism
• Seemingly paid for by gas and tire taxes

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Urban Transportation Policy

• Rise of road building (1910s )
• Rise of mandated planning (1960s )
• Rise of transit funding (1960s )
• Rise of citizen participation (1960s )
• Rise of intermodal planning (1990s )

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Rise of road building (1910s )

• State highway departments
• Initial push for improved roads for bicyclists
• Beginning before WWI in some areas
• Revenues from licensing and taxing vehicles and
  fuels user fees as basis for road improvement
• Centralization of what had been local activity -
  supposed to be more professional than local

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Rise of road building (1910s )

• Federal involvement
• Initial interest in Farm to Market Roads Office
  of Public Roads in the Dept. of Agriculture in
  1901
• Constitutional basis for federal involvement
  found in 1916 Federal Aid Road Act passed to
  promote the general welfare
• After WWI, dominant force in highways
  justification was national defense, given rising
  importance of motor trucks

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Rise of road building (1910s )

• By 1920s
• Federal and state highway systems
• Local roads left to city governments
• City streets
• Couldnt widen so street design, traffic signals
• Growing focus on safety, e.g. wider shoulders,
  better lighting, more gradual turns, reduced
  grade crossings, etc.
• Development of outlying areas as the focus
  designed for cars from the start!

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Rise of road building (1910s )

• By 1930s
• FDR says that auto not only flexible means of
  transport and vital industry but an integral part
  of the daily lives of American families

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1937 Film on Modern Highways
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Washington-Richmond Road
Source http//americanhistory.si.edu/onthemove/ex
hibition/exhibition_8_3.html
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1948 San Francisco Planning Department Freeway
Plan
Source http//www.cahighways.org/maps-sf-fwy.htm
l
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National Interstate and Defense Highway System of
1956
Futuristic elevated highway as imagined in
"Interregional Highways." From original caption
". . . a department store show window seen on
the left at the elevated level is dressed
appropiately with the kind of large display that
would be needed for comprehension by express
traffic."
In the original 1960s design for an elevated I-10
Papago Freeway, the Arizona Highway Department
proposed a new interchange design called a
"helicoil" that would require traffic to take a
280-degree loop to the ground.
Source http//www.fhwa.dot.gov/interstate/history
.htm
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Evolution of the Interstate Concept

• 1920s Mussolinis Autostrade
• 1930s Nazis Autobahn
• 1944 Interregional Highways report submitted to
  Congress
• 1949 Highway Needs of National Defense report
  submitted to Congress
• 1954 DDE appoints committee to study national
  highway needs GM board member as chair, no
  alternatives considered, justified partly on need
  to evacuate in case of atomic attack
• Mid-1950s American Road Builders Association
  lobbies for highway investments oil, rubber,
  asphalt, construction industries, car dealers,
  etc.

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The Interstate Highway Act

• 41,000 miles
• Federal government paying 90 of cost
• About 20 of mileage into, through, or around
  urban areas
• 30 years to complete

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Highway Revenue Act of 1956

• Increase federal gas tax to 3 cents
• Created Highway Trust Fund a new precedent

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Rise of mandated planning (1960s )

• Federal Aid Highway Act of 1934 some funding
  for highway surveys
• Chicago Area Transportation Study in 1950s
  birth of travel demand modeling
• Federal Aid Highway Act of 1962
• established 3C planning process continuing,
  comprehensive, and cooperative
• Called for planning at level of metro region
• Bureau of Public Roads published manuals on
  forecasting and planning

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Rise of transit funding (1960s )

• Federal support justified based on
• Balance between transportation modes 90 of
  interstates but nothing for transit
• Seemingly uncontroversial way to provide federal
  financial aid to Americas increasingly troubled
  cities
• Most persuasive Need to get people off the road
  to relieve congestion

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Rise of transit funding (1960s )

• Housing Act of 1961 small, low-interest loan
  program for acquisitions and capital improvements
  for mass transit
• Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964
• to encourage the planning and establishment of
  areawide urban mass transportation systems needed
  for economical and desirable urban development
• Capital grants for up to 2/3 of project cost
  only 50 share if no 3C planning
• BUT not much money ever authorized

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Rise of transit funding (1960s )

• 1970 Urban Mass Transportation Assistance Act
• Provided long-term commitment of federal funds
  for transit
• Established strong federal policy on
  transportation for elderly, disabled

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Rise of citizen participation (1960s )

• Situation in the late 1960s
• Growing frustration over impacts of highways in
  urban areas the Freeway Revolt
• Growing environmental concerns
• Growing concern about mobility opportunities for
  special groups minorities, poor, elderly,
  persons with disabilities

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Rise of citizen participation (1960s )

• 1969 3C process amended to require citizen
  participation at all stages of process
• 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
  required Environmental Impact Statements (EISs)
• 1970 Clean Air Act Amendments created
  Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

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Rise of intermodal planning (1990s )

• 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAA)
• 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
• 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency
  Act (ISTEA)

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Rise of intermodal planning (1990s )

• 1991 ISTEA - Intermodal Surface Transportation
  Efficiency Act
• 1998 TEA-21 Transportation Equity Act for the
  21 Century
• 2005 SAFETEA-LU Safe, Accountable, Flexible,
  Efficient Transportation Equity Act a Legacy
  for Users

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The Era of Earmarks?
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The Era of Earmarks?