Chapter 1: the working context

Advantages of a ground-based individual machine

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Even so, it is difficult to see any new method of movement coming along which will be seriously competitive on a big scale with the motor vehicle. There are so many advantages in a fairly small, independent, self-powered and highly manoeuvrable means of getting about at ground level, for both people and goods, that it is unlikely we shall ever wish to abandon it. It may have a different source of motive power so that it is no longer strictly a motor vehicle, it may be quieter and without fumes, it may be styled in some quite different way, it may be produced in smaller forms, it may be guided and controlled in certain streets by electronic means, it may have the ability to perform sideways movement, but for practical purposes it will present most of the problems that are presented by the motor vehicle of today.

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Our conclusion, therefore, is that the future of the motor vehicle, or of some equivalent machine, is assured, we think it follows that a close, constructive examination must be made of towns and cities in order to see how the best use of the motor vehicle can be achieved in those places, and how the present difficulties can be overcome. This represents the basic standpoint of our study. We accept the motor vehicle as a potentially highly beneficial invention. It is implicit in this that we reject, as an initial standpoint, a currently held view that the traffic problem in towns would take on an altogether different complexion—that it might indeed almost disappear—if motorists were obliged to pay the full economic costs of running their vehicles, including the rental of road space. We think the public can justifiably demand to be fully informed about the possibilities of adapting towns to motor traffic before there is any question of applying restrictive measures.