The Story Of The Modern American City
The Dawn Of The Car
The dawn of the car started in the early 1900s when the first mass-affordable car made car travel available to middle-class Americans. The automobile industry with the help of local governments transformed walkable cities that depended on mass public transport into cities with limited public transport and where cars dominated roads.
The Great Redesign
To help fuel the automotive industry's vision of transport, American cities were drastically redesigned to incorporate car travel fully. To realize its new vision whole neighborhoods often those of marginalized or poor people, were destroyed and people were forced to move. The second major win for the car was the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 which created the American interstate system a 25 billion project that constructed a network of large roads reaching all over the USA. The redesign meant that cities were cut into different parts separated by huge roads preventing people from walking from one place to another. This fostered car dependency in most American cities as people were forced to use the car to travel.
Suburbanization
Suburbanization started as a way to provide housing for the homecoming soldiers after the second world war. This was a way for the overcrowded cities to provide inexpensive housing for the rising middle class. Large shopping malls were built outside the suburbs to provide amenities. The suburbs were created with the car in mind and it was impossible to walk long distances on the streets and cars were needed even for short distances. The car became a symbol of freedom and what we today know as American car culture was born.
