Chapter III – part three: A historic town

The present position summarised

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In brief then, with the present level of traffic and the present arrangement of streets and buildings, the environmental capacity of much of the old city is already grossly exceeded.

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Any general policy of widening the existing streets to cope with more traffic must be ruled out because this would certainly destroy the historic character of the city. Already there is evidence to this effect in St. Stephen Street. It would be unthinkable to widen in this way St. Benedict Street, St. Andrew Street, Magdalen Street, St. Giles Street, London Street or many others. Similarly, to remove large numbers of buildings in the centre to make way for car parks would destroy the traditional compactness, and encourage more vehicles into the area.