Geometric aspects of linear movements systems

Planning city form requires a thorough synthesis of numerous interrelated factors, each individually contributing some part to the fabric of total environment. The process of interaction of people as they live, work and play is best supported in an ordered environment. This order must respect individual as well as community needs; it must provide flexibility for growth and change; it must insure continuity with the past, and at the saw time provide avenues for progress beyond the lifetime of its planners and current citizens. There exist today conditions which deny such order in most cities, and this thesis concerns two of those conditions: High-intensity-use urban centers, currently dying from population flight to the suburbs; and the movement systems, which congest, confuse and discourage the life-producing interaction of people within these dense urban centers. Today the automobile is a symbol of individual and mass mobility. Its path system, which provides accessibility to all of the cities' parts, becoming a major formative element in the total environment. It is the intent of this thesis to use the path systems of movement as en instrument to provide a structure for environmental ordor within cities, while promoting an integration of the life-giving activity of the central urban areas in a continuous manner throughout the city fabric: an order for movement and an order for growth. By analysis of the nature of movement systems and the scale unique to each system, and synthesis of proper relationships of those systems relative to the city they serve, it is possible to demonstrate the validity of this thesis: THE NATURE AND SCALE OF MOVEMENT SYSTEMS IS A PRIMARY CONSIDERATION FOR GIVING ORDER TO NATURAL URBAN GROWTH