The drive for dollars : how fiscal politics shaped urban freeways and transformed American cities

"American cities are distinct from almost all others in the degree to which freeways and travel on them dominate the urban landscape. While they have for the most part fallen out of favor among transportation planners and policy-makers who seek more sustainable, less-car dependent modes of travel, the share of urban travel carried by (increasingly congested) freeways today is greater than ever. This book tells the largely misunderstood story about how the United States came to make freeways the centerpiece of its urban transportation systems, and the crucial, and often overlooked, role of fiscal politics in bringing them about. This book helps readers understand the still-relevant possibilities of roads not taken in U.S. urban transportation planning over the past century, as well as the central role that fiscal politics plays in urban transportation right up to the present day."