99% invisible had a series about this, though I don't remember any names of the episodes. Was essentially reviewing a book about a single lobbyist's efforts in the 50s to make the car industry unassailable. The particular lobbyist got his way, and it would often destroy giant parts of every city that had any sort of size of black neighborhoods. Dude was essentially the architect of the way most of america thinks about travel now.

After a short google Robert Moses was the dude's name.