Transportation and Urban Form – Stages in the Spatial Evolution of the American Metropolis

The movement of people, goods, and information within the local metropolitan area is critically important to the functioning of cities. This chapter reviews the U.S. urban experience of the past two-centuries and traces a persistently strong relationship between the intraurban transportation system and the spatial form and organization of the metropolis. Following an overview of the cultural foundations of urbanism in the United States, the chapter then introduces a four-stage model of intrametropolitan transport eras and associated growth patterns. Within that framework, it becomes clear that a distinctive spatial structure dominated each stage of urban transportation development and that geographical re-organization swiftly followed the break-through in movement technology that launched the next era of metropolitan expansion. Finally, the chapter briefly considers the contemporary scene, both as an evolutionary composite of the past and as a dynamic arena where new forces ma already be forging a decidedly different future.