Corridors: A Theory of Urban Systems

As used in this article, the term corridor applies to a linear system of urban places together with the linking surface transport media. Corridors are very persistent historically, and they form one of the major types of urban systems in the New World. In general, the development of a corridor-centered economic landscape can be described in five cumulative historical stages: initial occupance, commercial agriculture, railway transport, motor transport, and metropolitanism. In each stage, the innovations diagnostic of changes in the economic system appear first in corridors, and diffuse outwards in a sequential pattern termed a culture gradient. Southern Ontario, as a real illustration of the principles of corridor theory exemplifies all five stages of development and manifests the culture gradient mentioned in the theory.