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The Big Roads: The Untold Story Of The Engineers, Visionaries, And Trailblazers Who Created The American Superhighways (2011)

by Earl Swift(Favorite Author)

3.76 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0618812415 (ISBN13: 9780618812417)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

review 1: This book surprised me very easy to read and written to make you want to continue reading, chosen strictly by author (from previous read) Learned more about highways than I ever wanted to learn. My college history professor tried to say inner city highways were built to put down race riots I disagreed using the cost factors that slum property is the cheaper property now it seems that the argument should be planning inner city highways caused some of the race riots of my youth.
review 2: Overall an interesting book, but I sensed a conflict from the author as to what type of book he wanted to write: Should it be a book about the unsung engineers and visionaries who designed and built the interstate highway system? Is the book about the far-reaching effects of th... moree highway system including the creation of new industries and the abandonment of old towns built along the old highways? Is the book a social commentary on the disruption of urban, mostly minority communities and the “homogenization” of America facilitated by hotel and food chains? Is it a history book that describes the process by which this incredible project got approved and ultimately completed? At times, I believe this caused the author to meander through his story threads. He also spent far too much time on the situation in Baltimore; it was interesting, but I got the gist pretty quickly and there were a LOT more pages devoted to the topic. There are some topics that I would have liked to have seen to author address, namely:· Why were pre-existing toll roads allowed to become part of the Interstate system? I think anyone who has ever had the misfortune to have driven on the Delaware Turnpike (with a whopping per-mile rate of $0.357…worst in the USA) has cursed that decision ever since.· Were there studies at the time to determine the incremental cost of adding additional lanes while the work was initially being done, compared to coming back 10-15 years after and causing massive traffic headaches during road expansion?· Who was responsible for the reflective “cat’s eyes” that are now standard on the interstate roadways? Seems like a great innovation to increase safety without installing overhead lights.· What is the author’s preferred solution to highways in and around urban centers? He spent a lot of time railing ( nice mass transit double entendre, huh?) against the original plans, but seemed to offer no alternative less

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