ABSTRACT
The point of view presents that modern urban transport systems represent the current stage of a process of evolution that has produced the best possible solution to the transportation problems faced by the modern city. There are all kinds and manner of automobile and expressway "critics" out there who argue that we should all but abandon modern transport systems, apparently, so that we can all ride bicycles to work. Of course there are higher densities in the inner-city, and of course transport systems there get more heavily used, but that does not mean we should abandon the suburbs when it comes to providing public transit. These people extol the virtues of mass transit and argue that we could improve the quality of life in cities by encouraging much greater use of mass transit. Transportation systems are so important to cities that it is impossible to understand, or study, the history of cities without giving due diligence to their transportation systems.
