Chapter 1: the working context

Nature of present difficulties

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With this picture in mind of the present importance of the motor Vehicle to the national life, we turned our attention more closely to the difficulties arising from its rapidly extending use. These difficulties are two distinct kinds. On the one hand there is actual frustration of the usefulness of the motor vehicle itself (that is to say it could be even more important in our affairs than it is now), and on the other there is a range of by-products (accidents, noise, etc.) all more or less undesirable in character.

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It can be said that there is no particular technical problem of dealing with these difficulties as they occur in open country. If the present fairly clear pattern of towns and cities set in open country is maintained, then the main traffic flows will be those between the towns, and there is an adequate understanding now of the kind of roads required to deal with them. The more intricate circulation of vehicles to farms and other open country activities can be contrived. It is mainly a matter of finding the resources for all the improvements that are required. Whether there can be dispersal throughout the countryside of weekend visitors in their millions in motor cars without ruining the countryside in the process, is another question, but it is one which lies outside the scope of this study. The point we desire to make is that, as matters stand, it is within urban settlements, where vehicles are concentrated, that the really acute difficulties are arising, and it is with these that this study is primarily concerned.