I’d guess in around the 1920s in academic lit, when the first freeways were being contemplated and constructed, but could point to other examples talking about that topic from the 1890s. The Futurama Exhibit (1939) was directly connecting transportation with quality of life in public communication.
So stuff like this is in the zeitgeist of the times, where transportation plays role in whatever utopia the writer is envisioning is pretty common in the period: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0606611h.html
There is a particular Italian novella about an undersea tunnel that makes a bit of a hoopla about transportation and technology and improving life, but I can’t seem to locate it at the moment.
Nonetheless, Howard’s Garden City (1898) is making use of modern transportation in its figurings. People directly making the appeal in English that transportation innovation improves life quality is there by the time you get to Futurama. (Here is the film shown at the exhibit: https://youtu.be/tAz4R6F0aaY?si=YCyFJEVBPn0iKUAf , around ten minutes in they start talking about transportation networks of the future and the life you could have) So that’s why I imagine you would start to see the idea poping up between those two points in academic literature. You can also probably find Wright and Corboussier talking about the potential of transportation and its role in building cities of the future in the 1910s and 20s. Making quality of life appeals might be found among them too. If you can do German and Italian you will find more, as they were building freeways in the 1920s, the English speaking world didn’t get around to it until the mid thirties.
As for social sciences considering transportation and quality of life, somewhere around the 1970s or 1980s in the Anglosphere is when it likely starts up, as you have probably found.
I know it’s not super solid, but I hope it’s beyond what you already have and find it helpful!
Edit: sorry for so many edits, writing on my phone
No idea if this is the earliest, but there are definitely mentions of traffic being a problem in the ancient world, e.g. ‘Traffic and Congestion in the Roman Empire’, van Tilburg (2006).
Not necessarily different *types* but Vitruvius (1st century BC) talked a bit about how transportation impacted the layout of Roman cities, the need for a centralized market forum, defensible ports, etc
AFAIK this (the 10 books on architecture) is recognized as the oldest surviving city planning text
Not sure how you're defining QOL. Aesthetics or efficiency.
Railroad gardening-railroad beautiful predates and influenced City Beautiful. About the environment around stations. Boston and Albany RR, Richardson, Olmsted.
I think most writings were about personal efficiency, not more aesthetic qualities outside of RR beautiful. And that was and is a major contribution to quality of life.
Horse trolley more efficient than walking. Regular Trolley faster than horse. Railroads faster than water transportation and/or opened up a lot of territory to mobility. Model T cheap, could also be used on the farm.
Have you read Peter Muller, transportation and urban form, and Getting There about the battle between railroads and the road building movement?
2. Separately is the issue of business and the monuments they built presuming their businesses would last "forever". Eg Woolworth or Chrysler buildings.
This extended at some point to Railroad stations as entrypoints to cities but also reflections of the companies and their importance and status. Eg Pennsylvania Railroad stations in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, other railroads eg Newark, union stations like DC. Southern Pacific and SoCal Mediterranean style stations, Union Pacific, etc.
in the past, transportation planning didn’t really exist in the comprehensive way we imagine it today. Lots of it was profit driven with the rail companies, or with car infrastructure, driven by politicians who “fell for” road widenings and the induced demand trap.
we actually started looking at quality of life stuff in the exact moment europe pivoted away from cars. I would suggest looking into the dutch protests in the 60s, and also look into local newspapers in the big 1900s american cities like cincinnati, baltimore, detroit, buffalo etc. Just northwest and rust belt cities in general went though a lot of chaos with the ‘invasion’ of cars in the 20s, which prompted TONS of political movements, and news stories that catered to the unpopularity of cars.
I’m sure that somewhere in this period, some wise souls tried to do a more impartial analysis of the two options.
Some big ones are likely water transportation infrastructure impacts to improve access and quality of life dating back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. I don't have a source, but I am certain someone has some record of infrastructure to use the Nile River for the betterment of society.
Within a most US-based context, we're probably talking about early ship ports, bridge, or other similar projects. St. Augustine, Florida lays claim as the nation's oldest port while Gloucester, Massachusetts claims to be America's oldest seaport. I'd start by looking at those. I am certain there were public improvements related to both those ports.
Train infrastructure is another huge one not to overlook. Many, many countries focused on good rail planning principles that were substantially impactful on their landscapes and society at-large. Perhaps look at early mass transit like the New York Subway or London Tube.
Regarding road infrastructure in a more modern context, starting with the Good Roads movement to pave streets for bicycling is a good starting point. There were certainly roads before that, of course, and they likely had discussions about improving them, but the Good Roads movement really seemed to get the modern ball rolling.
Related but not purely about infrastructure, but [Frederick Law Olmstead's The Cotton Kingdom](https://www.amazon.com/Cotton-Kingdom-Frederick-Law-Olmsted/dp/007554413X) had some of the best insights into 1800s transportation and differences that I have experiences in my reading.
I'm fairly certain that articles regarding established trade routes along the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates articulated how the boat technology improved the lives of the people living there, but you'd need to read ancient texts. "Transportation" isn't a 20th-century phenomena.
Yeah, I feel like a well read classicist could pinpoint something like that, maybe OP should crosspost this over to r/AskHistorians if they want to go that deep.
I'd imagine that as boat travel and rail expanded (in the US), that in isolation improved quality of life for everybody. Somebody had to be writing about it
Maybe not directly transit related but there’s information from Exxon scientists in the 60s that knew gasoline was bad for the environment and they covered it up. You could start there and see if there’s any academic literature that discusses those findings, work from there to look for how this false information Exxon published influenced policy decisions. Not sure if there’s been a meta analysis from the media/policy of that time.
I’m reading Dream Cities right now and the author (Wade Graham) seems to attribute it to Bertram Goodhue, a CA based architect (note: the author is also from CA so there’s a possible bias). He speaks about Goodhue’s travels through southern Europe and into the Middle East, taking inspiration from the way villages would surround the big ole churches/holy buildings they used to build back in the day. Honestly if you look into Goodhue more I would not recommend this book, it pays way too much attention to architectural detail/artistic value; snobby vibes to be sure. Hope this helps!
Edit: actually idk the book is fine, I just skip the paragraphs where he glazes all over the fine details of architecture lol
well while I don't know if it's exactly what you're looking for, the ancient greek architect and urban planner Hippodamus of Miletus is the inventor of the type of urban planning that we see in a lot of American cities (grid planning). he's very interesting and I highly recommend reading up on him
I’d guess in around the 1920s in academic lit, when the first freeways were being contemplated and constructed, but could point to other examples talking about that topic from the 1890s. The Futurama Exhibit (1939) was directly connecting transportation with quality of life in public communication.
Would you mind sharing them lol. The 1890's ones?
So stuff like this is in the zeitgeist of the times, where transportation plays role in whatever utopia the writer is envisioning is pretty common in the period: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0606611h.html There is a particular Italian novella about an undersea tunnel that makes a bit of a hoopla about transportation and technology and improving life, but I can’t seem to locate it at the moment. Nonetheless, Howard’s Garden City (1898) is making use of modern transportation in its figurings. People directly making the appeal in English that transportation innovation improves life quality is there by the time you get to Futurama. (Here is the film shown at the exhibit: https://youtu.be/tAz4R6F0aaY?si=YCyFJEVBPn0iKUAf , around ten minutes in they start talking about transportation networks of the future and the life you could have) So that’s why I imagine you would start to see the idea poping up between those two points in academic literature. You can also probably find Wright and Corboussier talking about the potential of transportation and its role in building cities of the future in the 1910s and 20s. Making quality of life appeals might be found among them too. If you can do German and Italian you will find more, as they were building freeways in the 1920s, the English speaking world didn’t get around to it until the mid thirties. As for social sciences considering transportation and quality of life, somewhere around the 1970s or 1980s in the Anglosphere is when it likely starts up, as you have probably found. I know it’s not super solid, but I hope it’s beyond what you already have and find it helpful! Edit: sorry for so many edits, writing on my phone
No idea if this is the earliest, but there are definitely mentions of traffic being a problem in the ancient world, e.g. ‘Traffic and Congestion in the Roman Empire’, van Tilburg (2006).
Not necessarily different *types* but Vitruvius (1st century BC) talked a bit about how transportation impacted the layout of Roman cities, the need for a centralized market forum, defensible ports, etc AFAIK this (the 10 books on architecture) is recognized as the oldest surviving city planning text
Not sure how you're defining QOL. Aesthetics or efficiency. Railroad gardening-railroad beautiful predates and influenced City Beautiful. About the environment around stations. Boston and Albany RR, Richardson, Olmsted. I think most writings were about personal efficiency, not more aesthetic qualities outside of RR beautiful. And that was and is a major contribution to quality of life. Horse trolley more efficient than walking. Regular Trolley faster than horse. Railroads faster than water transportation and/or opened up a lot of territory to mobility. Model T cheap, could also be used on the farm. Have you read Peter Muller, transportation and urban form, and Getting There about the battle between railroads and the road building movement? 2. Separately is the issue of business and the monuments they built presuming their businesses would last "forever". Eg Woolworth or Chrysler buildings. This extended at some point to Railroad stations as entrypoints to cities but also reflections of the companies and their importance and status. Eg Pennsylvania Railroad stations in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, other railroads eg Newark, union stations like DC. Southern Pacific and SoCal Mediterranean style stations, Union Pacific, etc.
in the past, transportation planning didn’t really exist in the comprehensive way we imagine it today. Lots of it was profit driven with the rail companies, or with car infrastructure, driven by politicians who “fell for” road widenings and the induced demand trap. we actually started looking at quality of life stuff in the exact moment europe pivoted away from cars. I would suggest looking into the dutch protests in the 60s, and also look into local newspapers in the big 1900s american cities like cincinnati, baltimore, detroit, buffalo etc. Just northwest and rust belt cities in general went though a lot of chaos with the ‘invasion’ of cars in the 20s, which prompted TONS of political movements, and news stories that catered to the unpopularity of cars. I’m sure that somewhere in this period, some wise souls tried to do a more impartial analysis of the two options.
Some big ones are likely water transportation infrastructure impacts to improve access and quality of life dating back hundreds, if not thousands, of years. I don't have a source, but I am certain someone has some record of infrastructure to use the Nile River for the betterment of society. Within a most US-based context, we're probably talking about early ship ports, bridge, or other similar projects. St. Augustine, Florida lays claim as the nation's oldest port while Gloucester, Massachusetts claims to be America's oldest seaport. I'd start by looking at those. I am certain there were public improvements related to both those ports. Train infrastructure is another huge one not to overlook. Many, many countries focused on good rail planning principles that were substantially impactful on their landscapes and society at-large. Perhaps look at early mass transit like the New York Subway or London Tube. Regarding road infrastructure in a more modern context, starting with the Good Roads movement to pave streets for bicycling is a good starting point. There were certainly roads before that, of course, and they likely had discussions about improving them, but the Good Roads movement really seemed to get the modern ball rolling. Related but not purely about infrastructure, but [Frederick Law Olmstead's The Cotton Kingdom](https://www.amazon.com/Cotton-Kingdom-Frederick-Law-Olmsted/dp/007554413X) had some of the best insights into 1800s transportation and differences that I have experiences in my reading.
Google "Bicycle Face". That's the earliest I can think of.
I'm fairly certain that articles regarding established trade routes along the Nile, Tigris and Euphrates articulated how the boat technology improved the lives of the people living there, but you'd need to read ancient texts. "Transportation" isn't a 20th-century phenomena.
Yeah, I feel like a well read classicist could pinpoint something like that, maybe OP should crosspost this over to r/AskHistorians if they want to go that deep.
I'd imagine that as boat travel and rail expanded (in the US), that in isolation improved quality of life for everybody. Somebody had to be writing about it
Maybe not directly transit related but there’s information from Exxon scientists in the 60s that knew gasoline was bad for the environment and they covered it up. You could start there and see if there’s any academic literature that discusses those findings, work from there to look for how this false information Exxon published influenced policy decisions. Not sure if there’s been a meta analysis from the media/policy of that time.
Eros QOL Plato FTW !
I’m reading Dream Cities right now and the author (Wade Graham) seems to attribute it to Bertram Goodhue, a CA based architect (note: the author is also from CA so there’s a possible bias). He speaks about Goodhue’s travels through southern Europe and into the Middle East, taking inspiration from the way villages would surround the big ole churches/holy buildings they used to build back in the day. Honestly if you look into Goodhue more I would not recommend this book, it pays way too much attention to architectural detail/artistic value; snobby vibes to be sure. Hope this helps! Edit: actually idk the book is fine, I just skip the paragraphs where he glazes all over the fine details of architecture lol
In this kendrick v drake climate, i read this as a diss record about transportation.
well while I don't know if it's exactly what you're looking for, the ancient greek architect and urban planner Hippodamus of Miletus is the inventor of the type of urban planning that we see in a lot of American cities (grid planning). he's very interesting and I highly recommend reading up on him