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CHAPTER 2
Background: The Importance
of Goods Movement in the
Urban Environment
The relationship between urban development and freight transportation is a chicken-and-egg
question. Do commerce and transportation lead to urban development or do concentrated pop-
ulations beget commerce and transportation? In fact, the answer to these questions has changed
over the history of America's urban evolution.
A Brief History of Urban Development
and Freight in America
The first American urban settlements were based on the available means to transport mer-
chandise and foster trade (i.e., coastal ports and river towns). Early settlements (and later the
first true U.S. cities) followed the trade routes enabled by water transport gateways and later by
railroad expansion. In early America, city centers were the fashionable location to live, offering
easy access to tradesmen, shops, warehouses, and ship docks. In colonial America's large cities
(e.g., Boston, Philadelphia, and New York), the urban core also offered amenities such as enter-
tainment, water pumps, refuse collection, and postal services. Because early freight and service
delivery modes were pedestrian or horse-powered, prominent citizens tended to live near ser-
vices in the city center.
In the span of In the late 1800s, the Industrial Revolution changed the face of American cities. Industry
developed alongside transportation gateways, fostering trade routes for agriculture and natural
50 years (1870 to resources. New industries lured people to cities with the promise of jobs. As the industry of city
1920), the number centers became noisier and more polluted, technology advancements in passenger travel allowed
of Americans in citizens to move out of the urban core and still access jobs. Trains, trolleys, street cars, and later
cars, allowed urban areas to expand beyond walking distance to employment centers--resulting
cities grew from in the rise of suburbs.
10 million to
Following World War II (WWII), the GI bill made suburban housing affordable, allowing
54 million. By suburban populations to explode. The Interstate Highway System (IHS) gave workers an easy
1920, more commute between downtown and the burgeoning suburbs. Employers now followed their
employees, because the suburbs offered cheap land, lower taxes, and less crime. Suburban truck
Americans lived in trips also grew as factory supplies from distant suppliers flowed through traditional urban gate-
cities than in rural ways via rail hubs or ports then traveled the "last mile" to factories by truck. As a result, urban
areas. traffic and traffic congestion exploded as well, signaling the beginning of a growing problem that
continues to plague many American cities today--congestion.
In WWII, logistics (having the right materials in the right place at the right time) played a key
role in the Allied victory. After the war, logistics management entered the mainstream of Amer-
ican business practice. Early logistics management focused on delivering finished products to
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