Suburbanizing the Masses Public Transport and Urban Development in Historical Perspective

This title was first published in 2003. Suburbanizing the Masses examines how collective forms of transport have contributed to the spatial and social evolution of towns and cities in various countries since the mid nineteenth century. Divided into two sections, the volume develops first the classic tradition on transport and the city, public transport's 'impact' on urban development. The contextualisation of transport is one important factor in the historical debates surrounding urban development. As well as analysing the discourse employed by urban political and business elites in favour of public transport, these contributions show the degree to which practice often fell short of ideals. The second section tackles the professional paradigms of urban transport: the circulation of traffic in cities and the technological modes appropriate to its realization. In particular these contributions explore the paradigms held by professional planners and managers, and the political classes associated with them. From a variety of perspectives Suburbanizing the Masses demonstrates the continuing relevance of socio-historical inquiry on the relationship between public transport and urban development. By differentiating between the many roles of urban transport in the nineteenth century, it confirms that public transport was not directly linked to urban growth, and instead often had only a limited effect on the wider urban structure. Suburbanizing the Masses forces a reassessment of the received historiography that maintains cheap public transport was essential to the spectacular growth of cites in the nineteenth century.

Contents: Preface; Introduction: technology, (sub)urban development and the social construction of urban transport, Colin Divall and Barbara Schmucki; Transport and (sub)urban development: Between politics and technology: transport as a factor of mass suburbanization in Europe, 1890-1939, Paolo Capuzzo; The flawed economics and morality of the American uniform five-cent fare, Winstan Bond; Suburbanizing the masses for profit or welfare: conflict and cooperation between private and municipal interests in German cities, 1890-1914, Dieter Schott; Suburban rail in Poland: decline at the dawn of suburbanization?, Jacek Wesolowski; Changing patterns of travel, transport and land ownership in a Victorian new town: Middlesbrough to 1939, Tony Carr; Professional paradigms of urban transport and traffic: Cities as traffic machines: urban transport planning in East and West Germany, Barbara Schmucki; Vision in solid form: a comparison between two solutions to the traffic problem in Stockholm, 1941 and 1992, Tomas Ekman; Urban railway redivivus: image and ideology in Los Angeles, California, Robert C. Post; Accounting for the customers? A tale of public transport in 1930s Coventry, Lesley Whitworth; Public transport and urban identities: Redefining the city: people, transportation and space in Philadelphia, 1876-1901, John H. Hepp, IV; Civic pride, urban identity and public transport in Britain, 1880-1980, Ralph Harrington; Passenger connections: views of the intercity bus terminal in the USA, Margaret Walsh; The transit destinations of Japanese public space: the case of Nagoya station, Jilly Traganou; Index.