Societal contexts of transportation and communication. Paper presented at the Conference on Multidisciplinary Education in Transportation, University of Pennsylvania, September 7 and 8, 1973.

Although it is an accepted fact that histories of cities mirror the histories of their transportation and communication systems, present day transportation planners seem to occupy themselves solely with the workings of transport subsystems rather than large-system effects. This problem is discussed and it is suggested that predecessor policies are essential to a productive, beneficial transportation scheme.