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A History of Street Networks

from Grids to Sprawl and Beyond

Laurence Aurbach

$61.95   $52.36

Hardback

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English
Pedshed Press
01 March 2022
Roadway networks are the basic frameworks of cities. They endure for centuries, influencing the ways that cities operate and their residents' quality of life. A History of Street Networks explores the origins and institutionalization of modern roadway networks, particularly the networks of urban sprawl. The book surveys an international history of these powerful yet unheralded infrastructure systems.

It is a story of far-reaching reform, as dreamers, designers, engineers, and business interests sought to remold urban environments into new and radically different patterns. Traffic separation-the separation of different types of traffic from each other-was a key motive of their city-planning and traffic-engineering efforts. The traffic-separation idea is traced from its international emergence during the Industrial Revolution, to its codification in urban sprawl, to the countermovement of neotraditionalism.

More than one hundred individuals, visions, built projects, and policies are examined, representing the most important efforts to make and control roadway patterns. Comprehensive, detailed, and abundantly illustrated, A History of Street Networks is a valuable resource for anyone wanting to understand some of the major forces that have shaped, and continue to shape, urban environments.

By:  
Imprint:   Pedshed Press
Dimensions:   Height: 254mm,  Width: 178mm,  Spine: 24mm
Weight:   939g
ISBN:   9781734345858
ISBN 10:   1734345853
Pages:   418
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Laurence Aurbach is an independent writer and editor specializing in urban design and sustainable transportation. He has been involved in the new-urbanism and smart-growth movements for two decades, working on a variety of topics including project evaluation, street networks, and green urbanism. He contributed to The Language of Towns and Cities (2012) and The Charter of the New Urbanism (2013).

Reviews for A History of Street Networks: from Grids to Sprawl and Beyond

"""Overall, A History of Street Networks is authoritative, thoroughly researched, with copious endnotes of value to the scholar; and richly illustrated, with images from archives and rare collections, as well as original graphic interpretations, such as the fascinating and prescient grid layout of �tienne Cabet's utopian city of Icara. As such the book should be of interest to a spectrum of built environment professionals including architects, urban planners, transport planners and engineers, as well as those more generally interested in urban history."" --Stephen Marshall, author of Streets and Patterns (2005) and professor of urban morphology and urban design at University College London ""Laurence Aurbach provides us with a detailed, informative and beautifully illustrated guide to the evolution of street networks as attempts to separate different types of traffic: fast from slow, business from pleasure, pedestrians from vehicles. He reveals standard urban forms, from viaducts and arcades to freeways and elevated railways, as different responses to this need to separate traffic. A well-written and generously illustrated volume. It is a tour de force providing a fresh perspective with the basic hallmark of a classic; making us see the underlying structure behind the taken-for-granted."" --John Rennie Short, author of The Unequal City (2018) and professor of public policy at University of Maryland Baltimore County ""Laurence Aurbach's book is so much more than what its title suggests. You quickly realize that the history of street networks is the tip of the iceberg. This book is really about the historical thinking that led to our modern roadways as well as network patterns. So while it was riveting to stroll down this historical path -- especially with all the amazing accompanying images -- the real value of this book emerges when you begin to see the cyclical patterns of the mistakes we've made in the past, and that our new transportation technologies are enticing us to make the same ones again. If you care about the future of streets, cities, and the people living in those cities, this book will unquestionably help the cause."" --Wes Marshall, PhD, PE, professor of civil engineering at University of Colorado Denver ""Laurence Aurbach has written an excellent history that literally illustrates the creation of the autocentric street network. . . . While shifts to livable roadway environments have occurred, the fundamental conflict between traffic and sustainability will only intensify. Fortunately, Aurbach has plotted a path that meshes historical logic and innovative urbanism in the quest to secure a livable future."" --R. Bruce Stephenson, author of Portland's Good Life: Sustainability and Hope in an American City (2021) and professor of sustainable urbanism at Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida"


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