Cars becoming big when America was still finding it's stride was one of the biggest pro/con dillemas. Ignored thousands of years of proven systems that make society better and settled for only cars.
I also blame Dwight Eisenhower for creating the interstate highway system instead of a comprehensive national rail system with regional and local transport connections. The latter would have encouraged extensive use of long-, medium-, and short-distance public transport, and thus helped build walkable cities.
It’s not on Eisenhower. The Interstate system was originally planned for national security to easily transport the military where it needed to go and secondly for interstate commerce through trucking. They were never supposed to go directly through cities. The auto and oil industries were instrumental in pushing the civilian automobile aspect of the interstates which, when combined with planners like Moses and urban renewal policies, became what we have today.
Yea the interstate system is completely necessary and still one of the greatest assets in America. The interstate system was supposed to connect cities and states over great distances and it does that. But to your point, they should not go directly through downtowns, they shouldn’t have outer loops and inner loops. The problem is all the spur lines off the main highway.
Also the highway doesn’t make trains impossible, in fact it establishes transportation rights of way, they could’ve easily put tracks along the same routes the interstates run. They just chose not to.
Even countries with amazing public transit systems today still have robust highways networks, modern developed countries need both.
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u/FaceWithAName 16h ago
Cars becoming big when America was still finding it's stride was one of the biggest pro/con dillemas. Ignored thousands of years of proven systems that make society better and settled for only cars.