The passage of the 1956 Federal Aid Highway Act marked the beginning of adramatic transformation of the social and political dynamics concerning transportation projects in the United States. This paper describes and analyzes these changes as they occurred in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area in the second half of the twentieth century. Three eras of interstate politics: Mega-Projects (1956-late 1960s), Expanding the Debate (1970-1990), and Falling Behind (1990s), are identified. These eras build upon and contrast with each other in order to provide a means of analyzing the mix of social, political, and fiscal forces at work in the development and building of transportation infrastructure. They reflect a dramatic change in the expectations of the public regarding interstates as they relate to the urban environment, the citizenry's articulation of its vision and values via direct participation as well as through their elected representatives, institutional adaptation, and increased scarcity of funds for transportation. For the covering abstract see ITRD E139491.
Samenvatting