Customer Reviews

Streets and the Shaping of Towns and Cities

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This books describes the history and evolution of residential streets in the US and Britain. It remains very objective, until the last chapter when the authors push for the shared streets concept. As a transportation planning professional, I found it very informative and compelling. It did the impossible: it changed my mind on the value of cul-de-sacs.

After a very brief reference to Antiquity and the Renaissance, the authors present the history of suburban street lay-outs in the United States from the 19th century to the present. This overlaps to a great extent with the history of urban planning in general and is thus potentially greatly interesting. Unfortunately, the focus is strictly suburban and no mention is made, say, of Savannah's, Philadelphia's or New York City's famous street patterns.

The authors include a critique of neo-traditional grids, surprising arguments in favour of cul-de-sacs and a pledge in favour of shared streets.

Regrettably, the writing style is tediously academic and technical, with unnecessary long quotations and enumerations. Though the book is abundantly illustrated with plans and photos, the former are extremely small and the latter, in black and white, are poorly reproduced. Indeed, the graphics and lay-out are surprisingly bland given today's computer age expectations.

Overall, this short work appears like a collage of various academic papers and will be worthwhile only to those very highly interested in the history of suburban development in the United States.