The Automobile City

As early as the 1920s, traffic congestion and road safety in cities led to the emergence of a new expertise that became progressively institutionalized as a scientific discipline called “traffic engineering.” By systematically counting on the growth of automobility, the models that guide it have become self-fulfilling. Cars have gone hand in hand with urban expansion, even shaping housing policies that favor the emergence of periurban spaces organized around road infrastructure. However, congestion and safety issues have not disappeared, and are now joined by an environmental emergency that calls into question the viability of the whole system. Is the auto city living its final days?