Transportation in Metropolitan Areas

Generalizing about the urban transportation problems of the hundreds of widely different cities and metropolitan areas in the United States is a gargantuan task. Total population, spatial distribution and density of population and employment, family income, timing of physical development, characteristics of existing transportation facilities, size and strength of the central business district, automobile ownership, transit use, topography and climate are but a few of the factors that contribute to urban transportation problems and at the same time influence the nature of policies appropriate to a particular area. As these factors differ greatly from city to city, one might fear that transportation policies appropriate for New York City have little relevance for Boston, Massachusetts, let alone Laredo, Texas. In 1960, less than one per cent of the employed residents of Laredo used transit and the total population was only 60,000. In New York City, 61 per cent of employed residents used transit and the total population was 7,800,000.1 The variation in size of central city populations and metropolitan area populations for the urban centres participating in the Centennial Study and Training Programme on Metropolitan Problems is brought out quite clearly by referring to Table 1-6 prepared by Richard Forstall and Victor Jones for the introductory chapter to this volume.