In The Routes Not Taken Joseph B. Raskin, Assistant Director of Government and Community Relations for the Metropolitan Transit Authority for New York City Transit, offers us a richly detailed account of subway plans that never materialized. Each chapter focuses on a particular plan, its evolution and, except for the 2nd Avenue line currently under construction, its eventual demise. The purpose of this review will be to try to suggest ways that Raskin's narrative of unfulfilled planning visions can be connected to larger issues in mobility history.

Raskin traces the construction of low- to middle-income housing to planned New York City subway lines. A recent study by the economist Edward Glaeser and colleagues found that subway lines are positively correlated to the incidence of poverty.Footnote ¹ Poor people reside where subways locate. In Raskin's account, we see how this process is mediated through housing developers. Here, the two forces – transportation infrastructure and housing development – exert mutual influence upon one another in complex ways best understood through case-studies of the kind that Raskin provides of Queens (chapters 4 and 8) and Brooklyn (chapter 5). For example, in the north-eastern section of the Bronx fluctuating property values were used as arguments in favour of constructing a subway line since, as one community activist pointed out, a proposed route change would bypass an area ‘where property values rose in anticipation of the new subway’ (p. 101). A different story emerged in Brooklyn where an out-of-state land developer strategically invested in large tracts of land along likely subway routes. This relationship between above ground land development and the mere anticipation of below ground transport infrastructure provides urban historians with a fascinating insight toward understanding patterns of urban development.

A second line of inquiry prompted by Raskin's study involves the class politics surrounding subway developments that form part of a larger transport network. Here, not only are subway stops an important link to above-ground development, they also serve as connectors to regional transit modes. In the case of the extension of the Bronx line mentioned above of the two alternative routes considered, one would connect to a suburban rail line serving wealthy Westchester County. That led community opponents of the line to carry signs decrying the building of a subway for the benefit of wealthy Westchester commuters. Scholars interested in the class politics of transport developments would benefit from Raskin's research.

Similarly, the design of the subway was also a contested issue. Separate factions of the Bronx's capitalist class were on opposite sides of the debate over the construction of cheaper elevated lines. Was the elevated train unsightly? Did it despoil the commercial environment? Many business people thought so. However, other merchants who had the good fortune of conducting business a block or two over found that the elevated train brought new customers and enhanced their revenue. Then, too, the necessity of building an elevated train in the Bronx was confronted with scepticism on the part of residents who appeared to question whether technical rationales masked a social class bias. That the subway was a political artefact is something that needs to be read into the book. Unfortunately, there is little discussion of the larger organizational, social and political issues of the kind provided by Zachary Schrag in his account of the development of the Washington DC Metro.Footnote ² In addition, readers unfamiliar with a particular borough's road system and forgetful of organizational acronyms can easily get lost in the details.

Overall, the main contribution of this book lies in the author's painstaking efforts to reconstruct decision-making processes that ultimately resulted in unfinished projects. This history of absence can be used to animate a vision of potential mobility patterns and practices. As such, it differs from attempts to reclaim the history of lost structures and lost transport infrastructure, notably through the many ‘lost streets’ or ‘ghost streets’ projects that offer virtual recollections of alleys, streets and thoroughfares that were obliterated by re-development projects. Instead, Raskin focuses on projects that remained blueprints and drawings albeit often attached to substantial commitments of money. Even as mere visions, they succeeded in initiating a series of new neighbourhoods and commercial districts. As such, Raskin's book provides readers with a richly detailed account of the complex interplay of real estate development, urban and suburban politics, city planning and public finance involving a New York City subway system that never was.