PAPER NO. 1121

THE PLANNING OF CITY STREETS

By B. ANTRIM HALDEMAN

Assistant Engineer, Bureau of Surveys

Read December 7, 1912

The average citizen, and even the citizen who takes an active interest in public affairs, seems to give but little thought to the street system; he accepts, without question, whatever is provided, whether the streets be wide or narrow and whether the general scheme be a wise or wasteful one; he is perhaps justified in his indifference and saves the planner embarrassment by it since even the authors of the plans themselves seem to have only a hazy suspicion of the importance of the work and perform it in a purely perfunctory manner without pausing to ask or answer the pertinent query "why are these certain arbitrary widths and cross-sections established?" or, if the query does suggest itself, reply to it without any serious attempt to investigate or analyze the problem; this seems to have been the case in the past as witness the extremes of street planningBoston with its irregular system of streets averaging less than fifty feet in width and Salt Lake City with its severely regular system of streets one hundred and thirty-two feet in width, and between these extremes every scheme that can suggest itself to the mind of man.

The statement that the planning of a city's street system is the most important problem municipal engineers are called upon to solve is one which would probably challenge immediate denial on the part of those members of the profession whose minds are absorbed in the study of water supply, sewerage disposal, transportation, and harbor mprovements, but when the subject is viewed at close range, with all the complex conditions surrounding it and all the varied interests depending upon it, the statement may be found to contain a large element of truth.

The expenditures for the construction and maintenance of streets

are among the largest items in the municipal budget and the investment is one which can return no direct profits. The street enters constantly and intimately into the daily life of the citizen and is absolutely necessary to his comfort and convenience; the economical construction, maintenance, and operation of every other public utility depends upon the street, but none of them receive so little really intelligent thought or skilful attention and in none of them is there a larger opportunity, or one more neglected, for the practical exercise of economy; the most expert engineering skill is called to the planning of other public works but the p'anning of the street system, unt 1 quite recent years, has generally been done in a perfunctory manner by the municipal officers charged with the duty or left to the tender mercies of the real estate operator; long established custom or the force of habit have controlled in the one instance and personal interest in the other.

With the rapid growth of our cities, a growth that shows little sign of abating notwithstanding constant pleas to the people to turn back to the country, and the ever widening circle carrying urban development over large areas each year, the cost of street opening and improvement under the arbitrary and unscientific methods of operation which have heretofore prevailed has become a serious problem which calls for solution along more deliberate, rational, and economic lines.

But this problem could not be forever ignored in the march of modern progress and a new era in this important branch of municipal engineering has dawned; examples have been set of practical, progressive, premeditated town planning and a new, modern school of town planners is growing up and making its influence felt. Town planning is not a new science, for it has been practiced to some extent by wealthy and luxurious nations for centuries, but it has been lost sight of and neglected in the intense industrialism and commercialism of the Nineteenth Century; the wealth created by this industrialism and commercialism has brought with it the desire for finer cities, more attractive environment, and better, easier, more comfortable, and more healthful conditions of living; and not only the desire, but the necessity, for the wealthy will naturally surround themselves with luxuries, and, remembering the fate of luxurious nations that have had their rise and fall in the past, the raising of the standard of life and living among all classes of the people has become

a social and economic problem of vital importance in maintaining national character and in perpetuating national identity.

Modern, scientific methods of street planning have been employed to a much greater extent abroad than they have in the United States. The Germans have been very industrious and very ingenious in adopting advanced principles in rebuilding and extending their cities, and have written voluminously of their theories and practices; in England, Parliament has created a general Town Planning Act; much creditable work has been accomplished and some of the universities have added a course in town planning and civic design to their curricula; some of the best books on the subject have been produced by English authors; America is awakening to the advantages to be derived from more skillful planning, as is shown by the number of towns and cities which have employed specialists to sugges tchanges and improvements; an Act of Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania approved June 10, 1911, authorizes the creation of a Department of City Planning in cities of the second class; a civil service examination for a town planning engineer was held in the city of Newark, New Jersey, a short time ago, and it is entirely probable that this will become a special branch of municipal engineering in all our cities.

The planning of streets is the first, if not the most important, problem in the origin and growth of cities. The very first step in the creation of a town or city is the preparation of a plan of its streets, for without streets, or public passageways serving as such, there could be no city; therefore, the streets may fairly be considered the foundation upon which the city, with all its countless activities, rests, and unless the foundation shall be properly proportioned and constructed the structure reared upon it will be subject to the constant menace of failure, decay and ruin. Every engineer will admit that the stability and the durab lity of the structure he erects depends upon the integrity of the foundations beneath it; therefore, the modern city, being the greatest and most comprehensive of the works of man, representing in its purposes and its accomplishments the ambitions and the triumphs of human energy along every avenue of science, industry and art, should have a foundation broad enough, and sound enough, and substantial enough to bear the ever increasing burdens the passing years lay upon it.

The large mportance of the street lies in the fact that the entire

TYPICAL SECTION

AVENUES

30 M. OR

OVER IN WIDTH

BERLIN

THE WIDTH OF THE SUBONISIONS DEPENDS ON THE IMPORTANCE OF THE STREET AND THE
CHARACTER OF THE TRAFFIC AND BUSINESS UPON IT.

THE CENTRAL SUBDIVISIONS MAY BE OCCUPIED BY EITHER STREET RAILWAY TRACKS, A FOOT
WALK OR A BRIDLE PATH. IN EVERY CASE IT HAS STRIPS OF GRASS AND FLOWERS
ALONG ITS BORDERS
OR ROWD OF TREES

THE TREES IN THE SIDEWALKS ARE OMITTED IN THE NARROW STREETS
THE WIOTHS OF SECTIONS WERE PACED AND ARE APPROXIMATE ONLY.

FIG. 3.