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TRAFFIC IN TOWNS A study of the long term problems of traffic in urban areas


digital

Reports of the Steering Group and Working Group appointed by the Minister of Transport

London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1963

Traffic in Towns – digital

The Buchanan Report – now commonly known as Traffic in Towns – was published on November 25th, 1963. The report’s findings shaped our current urban landscape and how we move around. The future predicted by Traffic in Towns has arrived. The problems it identified are now more acute than ever. The solutions it proposed continue to resonate 60 years later. We hope this cover-to-cover digitisation of Traffic in Towns ignites new conversations and inspires a fundamental rethink of our approach to “the traffic problem”.

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Traffic in towns

Dust jacket introduction
The problems posed by the rapid growth of motor traffic are amongst the most baffling which face modern society, especially in the crowded conditions of towns. No country in the world yet seems to have found the answers. This volume contains the reports of the Steering and Working Groups set up in 1961 by the Minister of Transport to study the subject. They attempt to foresee the full development of motor transport, to discern the problems arising, and to show what in principle can be done about them. The Reports show that the planning of roads and parking facilities is quite inseparable from the planning of the activities which cause traffic to flow.
Case studies of Newbury, Leeds, Norwich and a part of London are included to show how the principles evolved in the Working Group's Report can be applied to different kinds and sizes of locality. ‘Traffic in Towns’ is not intended solely for persons working professionally in the field of transport and urban redevelopment. The Reports, though dealing with highly complicated issues, are written in terms that the layman can follow, because public understanding of these problems will be of the greatest importance if successful policies are to be found.