Urban Motorways And City Street Congestion

Press, Volume C, Issue 29554, 1 July 1961, Page 13

Urban Motorways And City Street Congestion

Street congestion by traffic is a world-wide problem. The basic remedy, in the view of Professor W. Fisher Cassie, of the department of civil engineering at the University of Durham, <is the provision of urban motorways to arrest the decay of city centres. That requires collaboration among architect, town planner. and civil engineer, as well as public good will, he says. Professor Cassie’s views on urban survival and traffic are given in an article in a recent issue of the ‘‘New Zealand Scientist.’’ Urban Survival “The complexities of the problem of urban survival are more daunting than any which have faced the planner. the architect, and the civil' engineer in this century,” he says. “The civil engineer, with the planner and the architect must, with the representatives of the community, come to a decision as to the kind of city we want to produce Experience elsewhere has shown quite clearlv that congestion eventually brings about economic decay in a city centre. “There are three possibilities in the combating of this situation. There is. first, the acepfance of congestion; second. there is the granting of full mobility to the modern vehicle by means of costly and special construction: and third, there is the provision of mobility with controls, both legislative and persuasive.” Professor Cassie savs. He considers that mobility must be permitted to the motor-vehicle, but controls must be exercised to restrain the centrifugal tendency of development and to limit the volume of private motor traffic reaching the city centre. Where congestion is relieved public transport systems are improved. “The removal of congestion and the consequent encouragement of public transport are effected most readily by the provision of urban motorways—roads of controlled access allowing rapid '■irculation. Only one mile in 20 of the city street system need be in the form of an

urban motorway to effect a spectacular reduction in congestion, even at the peak morning and evening periods. “Five per cent, of the street .system built with controlled access and grade separation will remove up to 50 per rent, of the traffic flows These motorways, instead of debouching on to an already overloaded ring road, might well sweep into the centre and out again on another radial. This scheme of distributive loops meets the human needs of the driver better than ring roads, and fewer costly intersections are required. Off-street Parking “The corollary to urban motorways is that provision must be made for places for the vehicles to stop. To build oontrolled-access highways without off-street parking garages is no more logical than it would be to build airports without aprons, hard standings, and hangars. “No new plans for urban survival can be a real success from the beginning unless the public are informed and understand the implications.” Professor Cassie says the alternatives are stark; “either a canker spreading from the vital centre of the city and oroducing peripheral spread with a consequent, loss of character, or a determined plan by the architect, the blanner, and the civil engineer for new development and new construction suited to the needs of the present day.”