The automobile and urban transit : the formation of public policy in Chicago, 1900-1930 / Paul Barrett.

Main entry:

Barrett, Paul F., 1943-2004.

Title & Author:

The automobile and urban transit : the formation of public policy in Chicago, 1900-1930 / Paul Barrett.

Publication:

Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 1983.

Description:

xiii, 295 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Series:

Technology and urban growth

Notes:
Includes chapter notes (pages 219-283), bibliographical references (pages 283-285), and index.
Introduction -- The decision for regulation -- The battle for the streets -- The failure of regulation : mass transportation, 1907-1915 -- "The poor man's motorcar" -- The taming of the automobile, 1918-1930 -- Making do : mass transit in the motor age, 1914-1930 -- Epilogue.
Also issued online.

Summary:

Local transportation is a perennial urban crisis. The composition of the traffic jam has changed from generation to generation; the scene has shifted from trolley tracks to expressway, but the problem has remained unsolved. Popular explanations for the difficulties of moving about the city have altered. The auto industry, city bureaucrats, and city planners have replaced horse-drawn wagons, utility owners, and absence of planning as the favorite villains. Villains, however, there have always been, and the traffic jam remains. The urban transportation problem now appears as the product of an evolution, characterized chiefly by the absence of a coherent transportation policy. Public and private transportation were long treated separately, and each system was shaped by its users as well as by its own technology and by the public policy within which it operated. In a city in which both planning and utility regulation were for the most part the results of compromises among organized interests, straphangers could influence the treatment of the transportation problem only by the way in which they used--and then abandoned--public transit. Ultimately private choices--how and whether to use mass transit or the automobile--did much to shape the outcomes of public policy and planning. The choices made by the poor had far less impact than those made by men and women who could afford automobiles, but every user helped to shape the transit system. -- from the preface.

Resources:
Electronic access restricted; authentication may be required:
Electronic access restricted; authentication may be required:

ISBN:

0877222940
9780877222941

Subject:

Transportation and state Illinois Chicago History 20th century.
Automobiles Illinois Chicago History 20th century.
Traffic engineering Illinois Chicago History 20th century.
Local transit Illinois Chicago History 20th century.
Transport Politique gouvernementale Illinois Chicago Histoire 20e siècle.
Technique de la circulation Illinois Chicago Histoire 20e siècle.
Transports publics Illinois Chicago Histoire 20e siècle.
Automobiles
Local transit
Traffic engineering
Transportation and state
Illinois Chicago
Illinois Chicago Cars Policies of local government to date

Form/genre:

History

Host item:

ACLS Humanities E-Book.

Added entries:

Technology and urban growth.

Formation of public policy in Chicago, 1900-1930

Holdings:

Location: Library main 62434
Call No.: ID:85-B7902
Status: Available

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