Chapter II: The theoretical basis

The nature of urban traffic

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We decided we would need to attach a broad meaning to the term traffic to include the presence in towns of vehicles both moving and at rest. Within this definition we then sought to understand the nature and causes of traffic. If this seems an elementary approach, the explanation is that this vital aspect of the subject has been largely overlooked. A great deal of thought has been given to the engineering aspects of traffic flow—to the measurement of traffic volumes, and to the design of roads and intersections to promote the efficient movement of vehicles—but it has seldom been deemed any part of the responsibility of those working in this field to ask why the vehicles should be moving, nor whether the traffic might not be enabled or directed to move in some quite different way by manipulation of the causes of movement. The ability to look at the matter in a wider way has rested in theory with the town planners, but owing to a long-standing hiatus between town planning and road planning activities it has never been exercised effectively.