When trying to remedy Red Bank’s traffic woes, remember, that it was never built for cars…
Broad St, c.1905. People strolling and chatting in the street, kids riding bicycles, a 19thC tram system which stretched from the Bayshore to AC…
Across the US large conurbations and small towns built extensive interurban tramways, rail networks and bicycle highways. It would be the basis of a 21stC multi-modal transit system. However, it was never to be…
The advent of the car, or more accurately, their all-powerful manufacturing lobby, cleared the streets for the convenience of their customers. Tramways and interurbans were bought up and closed down to provide impetus for private car sales. The crime of jaywalking, still unknown in the rest of the world, was introduced to transfer the blame for the appalling pedestrian death rate in the 1920s and -30s, which was starting to impact car sales. The streets and roads of the United States were about to become the realm of the mighty car.
Read “Roads Were Not Built For Cars“, Carlton Reid, available from all good bookshops and libraries. Okay, so you might have to ask for it…
