The Drive for Dollars How Fiscal Politics Shaped Urban Freeways and Transformed American Cities

The story of the interplay between finance, freeways, and urban form in the 20th century and their enduring impact on American cities and neighborhoods in the 21st.

American cities are distinct from almost all others in the degree to which freeways and freeway travel dominate urban landscapes. In The Drive for Dollars, Brian D. Taylor, Eric A. Morris, and Jeffrey R. Brown tell the largely misunderstood story of how freeways became the centerpiece of U.S. urban transportation systems, and the crucial, though usually overlooked, role of fiscal politics in bringing freeways about. The authors chronicle how the ways that we both raise and spend transportation revenue have shaped our transportation system and the lives of those who use it, from the era before the automobile to the present day. They focus on how the development of one revolutionary type of road--the freeway--was inextricably intertwined with money. With the nation's transportation finance system at a crossroads today, this book sheds light on how we can best fund and plan transportation in the future. The authors draw on these lessons to offer ways forward to pay for transportation more equitably, provide travelers with better mobility, and increase environmental sustainability and urban livability.

Jeffrey R. Brown is Professor and Chairperson in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Florida State University. His interest in transportation dates to his childhood in Southern California where an early fascination with the extensive local freeway system grew into a curiosity about cars, trains, buses, and planes and how their use shaped cities and affected the lives of city residents.

Eric A. Morris is Professor of City and Regional Planning at Clemson University, where in addition to transportation history, he studies the links between transportation and geography and activity patterns, happiness, and quality of life. He attended Harvard for his undergraduate work, and after a decade writing for television programs in Los Angeles received an M.A. and a PhD. in urban planning from UCLA. While a doctoral student, he wrote a column on transportation and urbanization for the New York Times' Freakonomics blog.

Brian D. Taylor is a Professor of Urban Planning and Public Policy in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and Director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at UCLA. He studies travel behavior and transportation equity, finance, history, and politics. His recent research examines the role of public finance in shaping transportation systems and travel outcomes, the socio-economic dimensions of travel behavior, and the effects of traffic congestion on regional economies and housing production, and public transit use and finance prior to and during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Preface
Part I Overview and Introduction
Chapter 1: Cities, Cars, and Freeways
Chapter 2: Urban and Rural Road Planning and Finance Before the Automobile
Part II Planning and Financing Roads for Autos Before Freeways
Chapter 3: Planning and Paying for Streets in Cities in the Pre-Freeway Automobile Era
Chapter 4: Planning and Paying for Highways Between Cities in the Pre-Freeway Era
Part III Planning and Finance in the Early Freeway Era
Chapter 5: Planning Highways in Cities in the Pre-Interstate Era
Chapter 6: Planning and Financing Highways Between Cities in the Pre-Interstate Era
Chapter 7: Financing Freeways in the Postwar Era
Part IV The Interstate Era and Its Enduring Legacy
Chapter 8: The Rise of the Interstate Era
Chapter 9: The Fall of the Interstate Era
Chapter 10: Turning Back the Clock: Finance and Planning in the Post-Freeway Era
Chapter 11: Conclusion: Groping for a Post-Freeway Consensus
References
Notes
Index