The author contends that the history of technology and urban history can both benefit by paying attention to each other. The city provides the historian of technology with an ideal site for examining the interaction of technology, culture, and politics.

Urban technology in the rapidly expanding cities has been a matter of public policy. New urban infrastructure required the use of public spaces, especially the streets, which made them subject to legislative authority of state and municipal governments. Public debates over the implementation of these new technologies exposed them to a level of scrutiny rarely faced by the other owners of capital. These debates made explicit the often hidden cultural values shaping technological choices, especially with regard to how the benefits and costs of new technologies should be distributed.