DRIVING AMBITION ON ROADS TO RUIN

The article is based on a criticism by John Adams of the Government's current proposals for solving London's transport problems. He argues that road pricing would move numbers of cars and congestion around rather than driving them to the suburbs. His case is that the Department of Transport's proposed new roads for prosperity would in fact be roads to ruin. He suggests that evidence from the United States shows that a motorway system rather than connecting cities to each other has the effect of draining life out of the cities and redistributing it at low densities along the outer beltways and other high-capacity roads. The consequences of trying to build a road network to fit the forecasts will be to cover the country with low-density urban sprawl abandoning the older, denser parts of the built environment to be ringed by roads. There are methods of controlling the increasing numbers of cars - taxation has been used to control Singapore's population of cars and reduce Hong Kong's. Adams claims the key to transport is to provide the most democratic public transport modes first.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/00038466
• Corporate Authors:

  Architectural Press Limited

  9 Queen Anne's Gate
  London SW1,   England 
• Authors:
  • Cowan, R
• Publication Date: 1989-10-11

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: p. 17
• Serial:
  • Architects' Journal
  • Volume: 190
  • Issue Number: 15
  • Publisher: Architectural Press Limited
  • ISSN: 0003-8466

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Federal government; Networks; Policy; Public transit; Road pricing; Roads; Traffic congestion; Transportation; Urban areas
• Uncontrolled Terms: Road networks
• Geographic Terms: United Kingdom
• ITRD Terms: 632: Congestion (traffic); 183: Government (national); 173: Policy; 744: Public transport; 240: Road pricing; 1155: Transport; 8119: United Kingdom; 313: Urban area
• Subject Areas: Policy; Transportation (General);

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00606125
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Mar 31 1991 12:00AM