Changing the face of Europe : European road mobility during the Marshall Plan years

The article deals with mobility aspects of the Marshall Plan. It investigates the role of US diplomats who dealt with transport in Europe and tries to establish the extent to which they successfully promoted American views on mobility in post-war Europe. The article shows the initial dissatisfaction in Washington with regard to the lack of attention to road transport in the European response to the Marshall Plan. Subsequently the article assesses how Marshall Planners sought to enhance the role of road transport in three distinct cases: the Turkish road development programme, the regulatory framework for a European 'freedom of the road', and the creation of road transport facilities to ease tourist travel, especially for North American tourists in Europe. The article concludes that Maier's characterisation of the Marshall Plan as the 'lubricant in an engine' aptly describes the American influence: unremitting US insistence on the benefits of roads helped smooth the process by which road transport became the dominant mode in Europe.