Chapter 1: the working context

Importance of the study of movement

In the first place (to return to the thread of the argument), in all consideration of urban form, from the expansion of existing towns to the complexities of ‘urban’, the question of facility of movement of both persons and goods is of crucial importance. It deserves far more attention than has been bestowed on it in the past; indeed it can be said that it must now become one of the prime factors in the determination of where population and activities are to be settled. If this is to be the case, however, a much greater understanding of the relationship between various kinds of development and the demands for movement which they generate needs to be developed. In this largely neglected field of research there is a great deal to be learned from current techniques in the United States. It is important that movement demands be studied as a whole, not merely those that involve the motor vehicle, because all the indications (including those from the United States) are that in a complex community no single system of transport can provide for all the movements involved, and that co-ordination between systems is required.