Chapter 5: General conclusions

Peak periods

458

Even if account is taken of the need to rely upon mass transport for the main movements of people in larger cities, our studies indicate that the use of private cars for journey to work, resulting in highly concentrated flows in the mornings and evenings, would remain as one of the main aspects of the traffic problem. If these peak flows are to be accommodated efficiently, it means that a road system has to be provided which is underused outside the peak hours. It can be argued that this is an uneconomical course to take when there is the alternative that hours of work could be staggered, and the load spread more evenly over the day.

459

We think there is a risk here that a short-sighted view might be taken in order to avoid immediate decisions or expenditure, but which would be regretted later on. The choice facing society is between affording, for its own convenience, a road system of some elaboration, or staggering its hours of work all round the clock to its obvious inconvenience. If this country is to move forward with a steadily rising standard of living, then one main demand will be for normal hours of day-time work for as many people as possible, and society is likely to feel it can afford the various facilities, including transport, that will make this possible. Whilst some modest staggering of hours of work is clearly possible and desirable, we think, on a long term view, that the concentration of travel into peak periods must be accepted as a fact of life, and that transport systems must be designed to cope with it. There is the possibility, however, that a substantial reduction of working hours at some future time would enable a more acceptable staggering to take place during daylight hours. Some people would regard this as a remote possibility in view of the gregarious nature of society, but if it were to happen, then the effect in, for example, the case of the intermediate network we demonstrated for Leeds, would not be to render the network over-elaborate but to allow more optional traffic to use it. As to the possibility of the network being generally over-elaborate in conditions of increased leisure, it has to be asked what people are likely to do with their leisure—it is certain that many of them, in pursuit of various objectives, will wish to drive around town in cars, increasing rather than diminishing the demand for road space.