Rigged is not the right word. The US, like everywhere in the world before the invention of the auto, had a city center and suburbs within walking or trolley distance. All that happened, was that the commuting distance went out further in the 1950s due to the capacity to travel easily on highways combined with white flight. It was a combination of utopian planning and dystopian reaction to shitty race relations.
Robert Moses (the most famous of the urban renewalists in the 1950s) vs Jane Jacobs (the most famous of new urbanists, who wanted walkable cities) is the tale most people tell. But cars vs walkability misses many variables.
In the 1950s when they were building the interstate highway system, nobody was worried much about the downstream effects. It was all about the convenience of a nice suburban house with a yard but still having your city job. Mom didn't work either. So it was viewed as an acceptable trade-off, that is, the daily commute. Was it done to create dependence? No, it was done so people could have a quiet home in a quiet neighborhood but not give up that higher paying job in a pre-internet era where centralization was more necessary for business.
Also, the primary purpose of the interstate highway system was for moving troops around the country in the event of WWIII. Massive surburbanization was a secondary, knock on effect made possible by it.
What WAS done on purpose, was the importation of an ungovernable class to America's inner cities to break up the old ethnic enclaves, as well as the building of large swathes of low income public housing, which accelerated the white flight already happening.
Rigged is not the right word. The US, like everywhere in the world before the invention of the auto, had a city center and suburbs within walking or trolley distance. All that happened, was that the commuting distance went out further in the 1950s due to the capacity to travel easily on highways combined with white flight. It was a combination of utopian planning and dystopian reaction to shitty race relations.
I thought we were talking about the creation of car culture in the US, starting in about the 1940s or so, not today.
It was not a deliberate "muh ha ha" knuckles rubbing together conspiracy, which is what people mean when they say "rigged."
Robert Moses (the most famous of the urban renewalists in the 1950s) vs Jane Jacobs (the most famous of new urbanists, who wanted walkable cities) is the tale most people tell. But cars vs walkability misses many variables.
In the 1950s when they were building the interstate highway system, nobody was worried much about the downstream effects. It was all about the convenience of a nice suburban house with a yard but still having your city job. Mom didn't work either. So it was viewed as an acceptable trade-off, that is, the daily commute. Was it done to create dependence? No, it was done so people could have a quiet home in a quiet neighborhood but not give up that higher paying job in a pre-internet era where centralization was more necessary for business.
Also, the primary purpose of the interstate highway system was for moving troops around the country in the event of WWIII. Massive surburbanization was a secondary, knock on effect made possible by it.
What WAS done on purpose, was the importation of an ungovernable class to America's inner cities to break up the old ethnic enclaves, as well as the building of large swathes of low income public housing, which accelerated the white flight already happening.
Well most people dont want to live in cities.