Chapter II: The theoretical basis

Movement within town centres

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The densely developed centres of towns and cities naturally tend to generate a great deal of movement. But they have become so embedded and constricted in vast expanses of surrounding development that movement within them and to them is understandably meeting difficulties. This is particularly the case with motor traffic, much of which is attracted in from other parts of the town, or from outside the town altogether, but which then has to filter through streets and localities with which it has no concern whatsoever. The power of town centres as generators and attractors of traffic seems not to have been fully understood, and mistaken reliance has been placed on ring roads for the relief of central congestion when in fact much of the traffic has business in the central area, and is not divertible to places outside that district. This is not to say however that in any particular case there could not be enough traffic that is divertible to justify a diversionary road for its own sake, the mistake arises in presupposing that the diversion is bound to have a marked effect on central congestion. There is a very close parallel here with the question of bypasses for whole towns—it is important in both cases to distinguish which objective the by-pass or diversionary ring is designed to achieve: whether it is the interest of through traffic or local congestion.