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the tramway and the urban development of zagreb in the period of modernization Snješka Knežević Key words: Zagreb, modernization, urbanization, tramway, traffic. Tramways, which were introduced here only 20 years ago, but have come to predominate in public transport in America for a longer period of time, are still at the beginning of their development. Built up areas and regulatory plans are the main obstacles to this development. The current roads are already occupied by other kinds of traffic and they are not suitable for tram tracks because of curves, corners and steep gradients. In many old cities, there has been a resort to knocking down houses on street-corners or in narrow streets, and breaking through connecting or side streets, and this will be the case in the future also. Unsuitable regulatory bases should be changed and in the new ones the requirements of tramway traffic should be included.1 Abbreviations: SZ = Zapisnik sjednice skupštine zastupstva grada Zagreba (Minutes of the meeting of the assembly of the City of Zagreb) Izvješće = Izvješće gradskog poglavarstva o sveukupnoj upravi sl. i kr. glavnog grada Zagreba (Report of the City Administration on the general administration of the Free and Royal Capital Zagreb) DAZ = Državni arhiv u Zagrebu (State Archive in Zagreb) ; Fonds: GPZ = Gradsko poglavarstvo Zagreba (Zagreb City Administration); GO = Građevni odsjek (Building Department); ZGD = Zbirka građevne dokumentacije (Building Documentation Collection) HDA = Hrvatski Državni Arhiv (Croatian State Archive); SB TO = Savska banovina, Tehnički odsjek (Sava Province, Technical Department) NN = Narodne novine (The official gazette) ZET = Zagrebački električni tramvaj (Zagreb Electric Tramway) 1 The horse tram was first introduced in New York in 1852, in Paris in 1854, in Birkenhead, in England in 1860, in Berlin in 1861. Steam tramways appeared from 1859 in several Italian cities, in Den Haag in 1863, and the same year steam traction was applied in the London metro. The electric tram was exhibited for the first time in Berlin in 1879, but only bought into traffic in 1881; the English spa Blackpool followed in 1883. 197 Thus wrote city building theoretician and planner, Josef Stübben, in 1890, one year before the horse tramway was introduced to Zagreb, in his book “Der Städtebau”. This would become the most authoritative town planning text-book of its time. Stübben is the first author who related this new means of transport to the specific problems of the European city, its spatial and architectural characteristics, and also to town planning, and he considered it in the totality of urban traffic which comprises pedestrians , horse-riders, goods carriers, personal carriages and hackney carriages. A city’s traffic system is always determined by its configuration and its quality and progress are always enhanced by circular, semi-circular or fan-shaped rather than rectangular grid layouts. While the latter type as a rule gives the opportunity for an orthogonal network with longitudinal and transverse lines, other types allow for the establishment of radial, circular and diagonal lines and their combinations, with which the various planning requirements can be met. Planning, of course, can correct the shortcomings of every traffic system and make the most of its advantages. Specifically, Stübben pointed out the need for the separation of certain kinds of traffic on public roads, streets and squares, first, for safety and also for unhindered flow. As regards trams, he suggested, with a view to their expected development and their coming into general use, that exclusive corridors should be ensured for their main lines, wherever possible. This would provide for their independence from the road-system. Where this is not possible – which is the case in most cities - special corridors in streets should be dedicated to the tram tracks. He didn’t point out expressly, but demonstrated clearly what sort of challenge this would be for urban planning, with a rich list of examples: the profiles of contemporary streets, roads and avenues of European cities but also other existing models as well. But, apart from all this, Stübben expressed some scepticism towards the tram. This was not only because of traffic density and blockage of roads in the centres of big cities, which limits speed, but mainly because of narrow, irregular, often steep and winding roads, i.e. an entangled, [disordered] street network. In an ineradicable, mostly chaotic flow of traffic, a tram can even be an obstacle, for it can’t give way and therefore produces traffic jams...

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