[misiti3780]

You can blame Robert Moses for that. Everyone that lives in NYC or NJ (or LI) should "The Power Broker" by Robert Caro and you will be blown away.

He despised public transportation (because he never learned to drive, he always had a driver) .He actively designed bridges (over highways) to be purposely low so that the highways could not have bus lanes. When he was building the highways and bridges, he knew that the solution was to combine them with subway lines to reduce traffic congestion but refused to because he was so arrogant and power hungry. His solution was always to widen existing highways or build more highways, and public transportation ridership went from very high in the 1920s to very low in the 1950s/60s.

He did build a lot of stuff, but you could argue that NYC in 2021 is a worse place because of it -- and you really could argue that if you had grandparents (or great-grandparents) that were evicted by his housing policies or construction projects.

[emodendroket]

While that's all interesting, unless Robert Moses was directing essentially every American city's development it's more than just his preferences that were at work.

[eslaught]

I'm not all the way through the book, but I believe this is basically the point. Once Moses' "success" in NY became known, everywhere else in the US started to copy his approach. So he really did have a national influence.

[misiti3780]

I think it is a combination of Moses success being copied and then Eisenhower's Highway funding encouraging roads over subways

[wolverine876]

> He actively designed bridges (over highways) to be purposely low so that the highways could not have bus lanes.

That was to keep black New Yorkers from a white beach in, I think, Brooklyn, according to the story I saw.

[misiti3780]

Yes, that is correct. He purposely designed the highways, parks, and beaches so anyone that could not afford a car could not use them.