THE AUTOMOBILE AS A TRANSPORTATION FACTOR AND ITS PROBABLE EFFECTS UPON CITIES AND VILLAGES IN REGARD TO LOCAL TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS, CONGESTION AND CITY PLANNING *

By LEONARD WAYMAN, Urban Renewal Consultant, Chicago

First, I would like to talk briefly about the objectives of city planning in order to develop a framework in which to discuss the role of the automobile in city planning.

Then I would like to talk about the changing city, its problems and their solutions as they relate to the automobile.

The Objectives of City Planning

It has been said many times that city planners try to design a better environment for people in which to live, work and play. This statement correctly presumes that our cities today are not as good as they should be, and that we can make them better.

In city planning, as in any creative work, it is generally desirable to spell out some objectives so that they may be used as guides in the planning process. The following statement of objectives is broad enough in scope to apply to almost any city. Let me take a minute to review them:

One. City planning seeks to improve the city as a place in which to live by designing a more orderly, pleasant, healthful, safe and satisfying environment, with adequate open spaces, appropriate and sufficient community facilities, good neighborhood and housing standards.

Two. City planning seeks to improve the city as a desirable location for commerce and industry, where the production and distribution of goods and services can be carried on in a more efficient, economical and orderly manner, with adequate space for each type of activity.

Three. City planning seeks to organize and coordinate residential, commercial, industrial and public areas so that they are not in conflict with each other, but are constructively, related so as to promote the social, economic, physical and cultural development of the city.

Four. City planning seeks to preserve and to enhance the social, economic, cultural, and esthetic values of the community, and to eliminate any deleterious influences.

Five. City planning seeks to coordinate the growth and development of the city with the adjoining cities and countryside. Planning cannot stop at the city limits.

Six. City planning coordinates all of the various land uses with a circulation system for the efficient movement of people and goods within the city, and to and from the city.

Now let us consider—how does the automobile fit into this effort for attainment of these objectives?

We know that the automobile is the one factor that is influencing the development of the cities most profoundly. We need only to look at any city, or village, to realize that our horse and buggy cities are not suited to this age of the automobile. Cities are making prodigious efforts to try to cope with the problems that the automobile has created.

Let us look at some of the problems and see how the planners are trying to solve them:

Our number one problem is congestion. There are too many automobiles for our streets which were not designed for automobiles. They have jammed the city streets over their capacities and have created congestion that seems almost impossible to alleviate. And the problem is getting worse. We may eventually have an average of two cars per family. This trend reflects the people's basic desire for individual transportation with the maximum flexibility. This trend will continue while mass transportation facilities will slowly decline.

The city officials, highway engineers, traffic engineers, police, and city planners try to solve this problem of congestion by various means such as by widening streets where the traffic lanes are choked by parked cars; by one-way streets; by wider and better thoroughfares, by super highways, by laws which require every dwelling, business and industrial plant to provide off-street parking; by installing parking meters to restrict the length of time of parking. Traffic engineers and police use various other devices to speed up and control traffic — to get the automobile from here to there more quickly.

While all of these are helpful, they do not really do the job. In most existing cities, in order to effect a permanent solution to the problem of traffic congestion, the intensity of use of abutting property must be controlled so as to prevent the generation of more traffic than the street system can carry. Zoning is the most promising tool for the accomplishment of this objective, by providing controls over density of land use, combined with compulsory off-street parking.

The ideal solution which city planners should strive for is to arrange the land uses in the city so that the greatest possible number of workers can walk to their jobs, thus freeing the streets of unnecessary traffic. Some ot this thinking is back of the new Chicago Zoning ordinance which provides performance standards for manufacturing buildings to control noise, vibration, odors, smoke and other nuisances near residential areas. These performance standards when combined with architectural controls would make it possible to intermingle residential and manufacturing areas without the blighting effect that industry generally has on adjoining residential properties.

Narrow streets which were quite satisfactory in the horse and buggy days are largely inadequate now. Widening of every street is not the solution; it would be prohibitive in cost and would serve only to invite more and faster traffic on every street. City planners try to resolve this problem by designating only certain streets for widening for use as thoroughfares, leaving the minor streets as they are to accommodate local traffic only.

In modern subdivision planning minor streets are so laid out that their use by thru traffic will be discouraged. Only those who have business in the residential area will use the streets, thus reducing the traffic hazards and noise. This is one good way of preserving a quiet residential atmosphere which seems so desirable in this hectic motor age.

The dangers to school children at street crossings have pointed up the need for separating as completely as possible the child pedestrian traffic from vehicular traffic. In many cities new residential developments have been designed in accordance with the superblock idea where the children can walk to school and to the playground without crossing a single street. The superblock may be five to fifteen times larger than the ordinary city block, with an elementary school and park in the middle, surrounded by homes located on dead end streets. Auto access to the dead end streets is from a peripheral road. We are trying to use this principle in replanning areas for urban renewal in existing cities, but it is difficult to do with the existing streets and utilities already in place. However, even with the existing gridiron street system, a great deal can be accomplished toward separating pedestrian and auto traffic by careful planning of the remodeling of the old street pattern. (Continued on page 91)

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THE AUTOMOBILE

(Continued from page 85)

The automobile has even influenced the architectural design of the home. In the old days a front porch was essential as a place in which to sit and watch the interesting horse and buggy traffic. Today the auto traffic is uninteresting because it is generally too fast, and the front porch has moved to the rear of the house where it faces the quiet garden. The garage is attached to the front or the side of the house with access from the street instead of from the obsolete alley. We enter the house directly from the garage or carport. It appears that no segment of urban living has been left untouched by the automobile.

Another significant trend in city development which is caused by the automobile is the new type of shopping center where the stores are grouped around a pedestrian mall, with ample parking areas built around the periphery of the group of stores. This is happening in many cities, with the result that the existing ribbon type of commercial development along a main street with no place to park is doomed to decline. Many existing central business districts are trying to hold their own by providing better parking and other services. They will succeed only in proportion to their ability to provide the amenities comparable to those of the new shopping centers.

Our cities are undergoing tremendous changes. In the last few years the people of America have launched a great program for rebuilding our cities, familiarly known as urban renewal. The aim is to renew our cities by clearance of slums and blighted areas; and to make it possible for every family to have a decent home and suitable living environment. We are in the process of replanning and rebuilding the older sections of our cities so as to eliminate the blight. Furthermore, we must design these sections so well that blight cannot recur in the future.

Our replanning must take into account fully the ubiquitous automobile which is here to stay. We must plan to make full use of its capabilities, and at the same time we must control and channel its movements to prevent it from becoming a nuisance or a menace.

Cities are getting larger. American cities and metropolitan areas will continue to spread and will absorb most , of the population growth of the future. People will rely more and more on automobile transportation and less on mass transportation facilities. The great programs for construction of superhighways is recognition of the fact the automobiles will be the most

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prevalent mode of transportation. We cannot yet fully forecast the impact of the superhighways on the cities, but we do know that they will tend to spread the cities farther into the country.

It takes all kinds of specialists to plan a city—specialists in traffic, transportation, highways, schools, recreation, sewer systems, etc. On the other hand we also must have the generalists—the city planners. Their main function is to take the comprehensive view of the problems of the city, and to bring together the skills of the specialists for the good of the whole city.

For example, since the traffic engineer's job is that of making the best possible use of existing street facilities, he is mainly concerned with the regulation of the flow of traffic thru the use of signs, signals, safety zones, pavement lane markings, segregation of passenger car and truck traffic, oneway streets and other devices.

While the city planner is, of course, interested in these problems, his main concern with traffic is to develop a street system which will enable vehicular traffic to move swiftly and safely with the minimum of regulation.

Both viewpoints and skills are necessary for the welfare of the city. Therefore, in order to make the best use of both, I would like to urge the fullest cooperation between the traffic engineer and the city planner, in all matters pertaining to traffic. Both have knowledge and skill to contribute to the problems of circulation in the city.

In the recent months some accusations have been made against highway engineers that the planners of the new federal highways and toll roads are ignoring city planning considerations. How true this is, I do not know, but here again, there should be the utmost cooperation. The city planner may have designed a very logical pattern of land uses, with a well thought out thoroughfare system, when suddenly he finds that a new expressway will cut right thru a part of his city to the detriment of the city. It is, of course, the city planners' as well as the highway engineers' job to keep an eye on what the other fellow is doing, But I know from experience that this does not always happen. The highway engineer, the traffic engineer and the city planner should work together as a team to provide the best possible traffic plan for the city.

I would like to close on that one thought—let us work together to make the cities of America the finest in the world.

Page 92 / Illinois Municipal Review / April 1958