Chapter 3: Traffic Reduction

During the 20th century, car ownership and use grew from virtually nothing to become the dominant method of personal transport, with many benefits to those enjoying the greater mobility, speed, comfort, and convenience which cars could provide. Similar developments occurred for freight transport. In turn, these trends led to changes in the structure and functioning of cities (encouraging a tendency to “sprawl,” with the main growth mainly in suburban areas and a more diffuse pattern of origins and destinations), and to major commitments of funds, mostly public, as networks of roads were constructed and extended to deal with the extra traffic.