Author: George Ellsworth Hooker
Publisher:
Published: 2015-08-05
Total Pages: 98
ISBN-13: 9781332226344
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Excerpt from Through Routes for Chicago's Steam Railroads: The Best Means for Attaining Popular and Comfortable Travel for Chicago and Suburbs This book presents two propositions. The first is that Chicago's urgent need for better means of fast and comfortable local travel should be largely met by its steam lines; the second is that these should, to that end, be organized on the through-route plan. The steam lines are mostly elevated already above street interference, they represent the highest speed in travel, they fan out thickly over the city, they have their own rights-of-way and so minimize public suffering from the noise, dust and danger incident to fast travel, and they have a wide margin of unused capacity. The through-route idea, making as it does for normal city development and for the spread of population, is beginning to be recognized as the basic principle of city planning for large communities. Its application to local travel routes is indispensable to sound and far-sighted city planning for Chicago. The idea is indeed accepted in practice now for all local passenger railways in Chicago except the steam lines - which still operate entirely on the terminal plan. It is believed that a properly designed and operated system of through routes for local travel on the steam lines would constitute, from a broad city planning standpoint, the most efficient trunk factor for a logical trunk-and-feeder scheme of passenger travel for the entire city and its suburbs, and would yield more accommodation in rapid transit for the same outlay than could be secured in any other way. Such fitness as the author may have for discussing this subject comes from the investigations made by him as secretary of the Special Street Railway Committee of the City Council of Chicago in 1897-8, and from personal study before and especially since then of passenger traffic and housing conditions in American and foreign cities. The opinions here expressed were first outlined by the author in the series of transportation discussions held by the City Club last year, and, so far as known to him, constitute the first advocacy of the idea that the steam railroads of Chicago ought to serve in a large way for local travel. Thanks are due to Mr. Charles K. Mohler, formerly of Chicago, now Chief Engineer of the Board of Public Utilities of Los Angeles, for several original maps and other valuable data here reproduced. Acknowledgment for maps and diagrams used is also due to Mr. Richard Petersen, Dr. Rudolf Eberstadt and Professor Bruno Mohring of Berlin, the Citizens' Terminal Plan Committee of Chicago, the Chicago Plan Commission, the Board of Supervising Engineers - Chicago Traction, the Chicago Association of Commerce Committee on Smoke Abatement and Electrification, Mr. Bion J. Arnold, Mr. Frederic A. Delano, Mr. William Drummond and Mr. Jarvis Hunt. Mr. Dwight L. Akers, Assistant Civic Secretary of the City Club, rendered special assistance in the final revision of the text. Mr. Carlos Colton Daughaday as editor in charge has directed the work of publication. June, 1914. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
