Traffic Disruption Of Towns

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30471, 19 June 1964, Page 1

Traffic Disruption Of Towns

New Zealand had a golden opportunity of solving the problem created by motorvehicles cluttering cities and towns, and Christchurch had an even better opportunity, said Mr E. J. Bradshaw, chairman of the Christchurch Regional Planning Authority, yesterday.

Mr Bradshaw was speaking at the inaugural Christchurch showing of a British' film, “Traffic in Towns,” which deals with the Buchanan report and study made in the United Kingdom of the disruption of towns and town life by traffic. The Buchanan report—Professor Colin Buchanan was now president of the Town Planning Institute had

achieved world-wide acclaim as the most comprehensive and up-to-date study of problems created by the rapid growth of motor traffic, Mr Bradshaw said.

The film showed British problems, but the problems of the impending motor age faced every country in the .world, Mr Bradshaw said. The search for solutions had gone on for a long time in many parts of the world.

America had led the field in solving traffic engineering problems, Britain led in town planning and comprehensive redevelopment, the Scandinavian countries led in civic design, and Russia led in restrictive control. No country had produced a solution. New Policy The Buchanan report offered no panacea, Mr Bradshaw said. But it did recommend a positive new policy of tackling and achieving an urban design compatible with

the motor-vehicle. Each design was different, according to the circumstances of the town.

There must be a new understanding by the public of the towns and their design, and a comprehensive plan of all aspects of town development, with. complete co-ordinated teamwork by the professions and public representatives. Christchurch had tackled the first obstacle by bringing together the. leading representatives of not only all aspects, but of town development, and had produced the framework by which it had been proved • traffic could move freely and on which a design for living could be patterned.

“If we move forward from here with the urgency that is called for we can save ourselves and our successors many millions of pounds, nours of frustration, and neu-

rosis and deaths and accidents,” Mr Bradshaw said.

Christchurch would be the laughing-stock of the world if it was known that it had lost time and opportunity now because of any minor conflict. Public understanding of the problem was of the greatest importance, he said. That was why the British Ministry of Information had made the film for the public there. He hoped that in New Zealand, and Christchurch in particular, the film could have a wide showing to alert the public to the traffic problem where the motor-car could become a menace spoiling civilisation. The film, the only copy in the country, was on loan to the authority yesterday from the Ministry of Works. The authority hopes to have it again next month and to arrange more wide screenings. City Problems

Christchurch’s problems were allied to the film showing by a statement of “10 commanding points” on the city’s master transport plan. The existing street pattern was 120 years old, the statement said, and during the next 20 years the motorvehicle would provide the total increase in travel needs. Without the master plan congestion on the existing street system would result in many streets ceasing to serve their present function by 1980. Only by superimposing a new system of motorways and off-street parking on the existing pattern could frontage disruption to existing buildings and properties be avoided.