Chapter III – Practical studies

Radial roads

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We found that a particular environmental difficulty arose (and it is one that is common to all our towns) on the main radial roads. In the residential areas, these roads not only serve to give direct access to the dwellings, but also function as local distributors linking with numbers of access roads. In the absence of any alternative route there is the added complication that through traffic has to make use of the radials. Even if the through traffic is discounted, the volume of traffic in 2010 would build up along the radials approaching the town centre, as flows from the tributary roads came in, until the traffic level would become incompatible with the residential function of the road. A decision had to be taken, therefore, whether to direct traffic away from the radial, or to convert the radial into a distributor. The second course would necessitate the elimination of direct access to frontage properties, and would involve rearrangement or regrouping of environmental areas. This point is illustrated in practice in Figure 88, in which it can be seen that road A.343, south of the town, is diverted to the east at a point where the volume of traffic becomes incompatible with the function of the road as a residential access road