Transport, Technology, and Sustainability

Few cities illustrate automobile-dependent growth as clearly as Los Angeles and Houston. Los Angeles expanded across a vast, low-density basin through the twentieth century, initially along an extensive streetcar network that was later dismantled in favor of an equally extensive freeway system, producing a polycentric metropolis built around the private car. Houston took car-centric planning further still, famously remaining the largest major American city without formal zoning, which allowed low-density, single-use development to spread with minimal regulatory constraint. In both cities, the resulting urban form, wide arterial roads, abundant parking, and separated land uses, makes walking, cycling, or transit use structurally difficult, reinforcing dependence on the automobile.