Page:John Nolen--New ideals in the planning of cities.djvu/63

CITIES, TOWNS AND VILLAGES providing efficient, economic and abundant street railway service, and so far as possible on the surface of streets.

Rapid transit may be provided by "tube tunnels," subways, "open cuts," viaducts, or elevated railroads. Only cities of great size and -population, however, require provision for rapid transit service. Early development is, or ought to be, influenced largely by the city's topography. Provision for transportation necessarily follows the earlier development. The growth of a city is usually irregular in plan, and the later provision of rapid transit consequently becomes more difficult to apply. In the growth of a city the business area and district have probably been of narrow extent with considerable congestion. The provision of rapid transit facilities in the small area of congestion is liable to increase that congestion rather than relieve it. Therefore rapid transit facilities centering upon a business district should be provided not to a single point,