The logical location for early lines of Roadtown will be at the end of
present rapid transit or commuting facilities of our cities or will
tap these lines far enough out to avoid high land values. Thus there
will be ample vacant ground to start a Roadtown at the uptown end of
the New York Subway that could build right through to Boston. Real
estate within or near the city will, of course, be higher in price,
but as such Roadtown dwellings will be able to compete in every sense
with the present prevailing forms of two story houses seen in such
districts, and have in addition all the Roadtown advantages including
indoor rapid, noiseless and dustless transportation, they could afford
to pay for the extra value of such land and still be the object of envy
by the outside residents. As soon as it has passed beyond the present
suburban or speculative belt, the Roadtown will at once take on the
life of the city in the country as pictured in this book, yet all the
inhabitants will have quick and cheap transportation services into the
old cities.
The demand for such Roadtowns for commuting purposes will be so great
at first as to prevent the earlier structures from coming into their
full use as homes for a population that shall support itself by work
within the Roadtown proper. How quickly this demand will be filled is a
matter of speculation. The economic incentive will readjust wisely. It
never fails. At present, with all the suburban development, the heart
of the city is becoming more and more densely populated. We have not
been able to get people out of the city as rapidly as the population
increases. The Roadtown will materially aid in this fight to get the
people out of the city to live.
_A Real Remedy for Congestion._
But with the development of the Roadtown a new factor enters this fight
against congestion. The suburbanite must depend upon the city for
his livelihood, the Roadtowner need not. The result will be that the
Roadtown as soon as built will begin to take people away from the city
to work as well as away to sleep, and this means a real relief of city
congestion, not simply the frantic piling up of humanity twice each day
at the gates of the city.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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