From an East Camelback Road Airbnb, I drive to Van Buren Street in Phoenix to see Douglas Towne, a writer and preservationist with the Society for Commercial Archeology. Before freeways, Van Buren was like a big automotive river fed by tributaries of traffic — the confluence of U.S. routes 60, 70, 80 and 89. As many as 200 motels operated on Van Buren in its postwar prime, earning Phoenix the title of “Motel Capital of the World.”