Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity

by Charles L. Marohn Jr.

The original vision for America’s highways was for them to function as connections between established places, to augment the wealth creation mechanism of rivers and railroads. Had that been done, it would have reinforced existing development patterns further entrenching the stifling nature of high land values. Instead, all levels of American government coalesced around policies that destroyed the underlying land values of core cities. The mechanism is simple: Running a road through the center of an established neighborhood to the edge of town opens land up for development. With the automobile and the new road, comparatively massive amounts of raw land is now reachable. From a simple supply and demand standpoint, flooding the market with cheap land drives down the price of land. Instead of connecting places, highways primarily became a mechanism for land development around our cities. Policies were established at the state and federal levels focusing on auto-commuting patterns. Highways were run, not around cities, but through the middle of established neighborhoods. Cities adopted regulations and practices – such as high design speeds on local streets, parking requirements for private property, and anti-walking campaigns – that privilege distant auto-commuters over local land owners. Over time, mitigating traffic congestion became a top public policy priority.