Chapter 1: the working context

Chapter 1: The Working Context

1

There is some measure of agreement about the broad nature of the Urban traffic problem—jams, frustrations, parking difficulties, confusion, noise and accidents—but it is a subject which lends itself to hasty and often contradictory opinions when it comes to prescribing remedies. Some people say the motor vehicle does not have a long term future at all, and therefore there is no need to do anything. Some say the problem is insoluble, and therefore it is a waste of money to try to do anything. Others say that towns and cities as they have existed for centuries are finished, and we had better recognise the fact. Some, pointing to the United Stares, pin their faith to the building of ‘urban motorways’ but others, also pointing to the United States, say this would be quite the wrong thing to do, and that the answer is to return to the railways. Some consider that growth in numbers will of itself ‘solve’ the problem, because traffic will then become so thick that users will tend to stay off the roads. Some people would ban cars from city centres, but others say more parking space is needed. Still others declare it is impossible even to gauge the problem until the motorist is obliged to pay the full economic cost of running a vehicle. People are not even consistent from hour to hour—it is notorious that a person at one moment, when driving, can be intolerant of pedestrians, but a few minutes later, as a pedestrian himself, can fulminate against motorists. Nor do people attach the same importance to various aspects of the problem. Some deplore the economic losses to industry caused by traffic delays, others see accidents as the main evil, whilst others are concerned about the damage to urban surroundings. Some of these matters arouse very strong feelings, and a considerable number of societies and pressure groups has come into existence to promote various viewpoints.

2

We found it impossible, at the start of our work, to make a quick choice out of such a welter of opinions. The more we examined the urban traffic problem the more complicated it seemed to be, and we decided we would need to review it methodically in order to establish the context in which long term policies should be sought. So this chapter recounts our search for a working context. In it we trace the development of the motor vehicle, its infiltration into the country’s affairs, the nature of the present difficulties, the future of the motor vehicle vis-à-vis other forms of transport, and then we examine the broad alternative policies that seem to exist for towns and cities.