Citation

Brown J. J. Plan. Hist. 2006; 5(1): 3-34.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1538513205284628

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

During the 1920s, millions of Americans embraced the automobile as their primary means of transportation, and traffic quickly congested city streets. Local officials turned to the experts for aid. These men approached the problem as one whose solution might be identified through the application of scientific techniques. Through their efforts, they transformed transportation planning from a broad, multidisciplinary exercise into a narrow, technical one, and introduced principles and procedures that continue to guide practitioners. Their development of a science based on traffic data and premised on the desirability of facilitating high-speed automobile movement also served to blind later professionals to the often-negative consequences of their own planning prescriptions.

Language: en