Chapter 3 – Part four: A central metropolitan block

Introduction to first study

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At Newbury we examined the problems of a small town, giving some consideration to the impact of traffic on the central shopping area. At Leeds we were concerned mainly with the network for a large town. At Norwich we were interested in the impact of traffic on a historic city. We then felt a need to look more closely at the detailed problems of accommodating and circulating vehicles amongst a large group of buildings. It is one thing to devise a network which will deliver vehicles to the parts of the town where they wish to go, but it is another and crucial matter to effect the final distribution to the buildings. We were interested to discover whether there were problems concerned with the actual arrangement and design of buildings which might put a limit to the amount of traffic that could be accommodated. We also wanted to learn what advantages would accrue from complete redevelopment of an area in an improved form, and, at the other extreme, what the effects would be of permitting the haphazard piecemeal rebuilding of individual sites which is now going on in most towns. We also hoped that by close study of one large block of development we might, by considering the effects of a succession of similar blocks put together in all directions, achieve a short cut to understanding the traffic problems of a very large city.