TOWN PLANNING AND ROAD DEVELOPMENT.
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Yorkshire Projects Which Will Undoubtedly be of Benefit to Motor Transport.
THE DEVELOPMENT of a number of housing schemes is likely to have an important effect upon the roads of the West Riding of Yoekshire: Several of the municipal authorities are tackling the housing que.stion in a serious fashion, and some of the big cities are contemplating the building of houses in such a manner that large colonies will be set up. This will mean the opening up of large tracts of land, and, before building can be commenced even, important road schemes must be taken in hand.
Our big cities of to-day have developed in a very haphazard fashion, but, in their development, roads have played, an important part. Most of our large towns have extended in the form of a star, with roads leading to other centres of population stretching out from the points of the star. The houses have extended along these roads and, in many cases, it is by making cross or ring roads to join .up these main roads that local authori0e.s -hope" to develop building as near as possible to the centre of the city.. In more than. one case it 'is proposed that, •not merely shall the roads bilanching out from the existing roads serve the colony of people which will spring up, but that they shall serve as connecting roads from one main artery to another and .even form. ring roads to encircle the 'city. In this way, the de
Yelopment of housing schemes on bold lines will be of the greatest interest to those concerned in motor transport.
In long-distance travelling with motor vehicles city traffic is to be avoided as much as possible, and it is likely that, for transport of this character, the suggested ring roads will be of great value. Towns have often grown up from hamlets centred round a lord, and thus the centre of the town is usually the lowest part, the main roads falling as they enter and rising as they leave the ton. This means difficult work for road users, but, owing to the unsuitability of the roads which skirt the towns, it has generally been impossible to avoid towns. Ring roads will ease the city' thoroughfares of all but local traffic, and the new roads will, in most cases, be better engineered and of more uniform gradient than the city roads.
West Riding towns, being in the valleys of the Pennine Range, are invariably difficult of approach, and it is here that the new roads will be found particularly uSeful.• The main roads, lead through the towns and, in consequence of the conformation of the land, it is usually impossible to find loop roads which are of any value. Leeds has in contemplation, in conjunction with its housing scheme, the construction of ring roads which willalmost encircle the city. Houses will be builtito the/ number of attout 4,000 in lots of from 300 to 700 houses in different parts of the city, and to serve these houses, not only are roads under consideration, but also some scheme of passenger transport. The ring road proposed will connect practically all the outlying suburbs which it is proposed to develop, and also several existing suburbs. Tramway and trackless trolley services will be extended on the main branch roads from the existing services to the ring road and for a great distance over the ring road also. The construction of these ring roads will be undertaken on lines which are novel so far as this country is concerned and, in most cases, it is proposed to lay down roads 125 ft. wide, with a tramwiy track, laid on sleepers, down the middle. A comfortable space will be available for motor traffic at each side,. and equally spacious branch roads will be provided leading up to the blocks of houses which
do not abut the main road.
Leeds isa. particularly objectionable place to the driver of through traffic, not only because the streets in the centre of the city, are so badly 'congested. at all hours of the day, but, also, because the contour of the land' upon which the city is built is in the form of a basin. The new road will miss the drop into the city and allow traffic to. .keep to the higher, but more Uniform level of the .residential districts on the oncViiits. Similar town-planning schemes are on -foot in Bradford, Sheltie Id, and other large centres, bul, in the case of Bradford the new housing scheme contemplates, more particularly, an extension of the city in a north-westerly direction. Here, again, a road playa an important part in the scheme, and motor transport is likely to benefit by the provision of an additional outlet from the city and the provision of a enbaidiary road which will materially relieve the heavy traffic at present compelled to use the muchthronged highway through the bottom of the Airedale Valley. To-day this is ' totally inadequate for all the traffic which passes out from Bradford—the general marketing centre for the district, and also for the whole of the West Riding wool and worsted trades— to Shipley, .Bingley, Keighley, Skipton, and the East Lancashire towns.
Fortunately, some of our far-seeing administrators have realized our takes in the past in allowing towns to grow up in any disordered fasnion, and,
in the future, it will be possible for local authorities to plan out any land before buildings are placed upon it. Thus, roads will not be allowed to wind about buildings placed wherever the builder wishes to place them, and to provide a street-line as straight as the proverbial dog's leg. Roads will be the first consideration, and the buildings will have to conform to the' prearranged plan. Already there are statutory powers provided whereby district councils and borough councils may enforce these conditions.by 'adopting the Town Planning Act, but, unhappily, many local bodies do not realize the importance of this provision and have failed to adopt the Act for their particular district.
It is impossible for us to pull down our existing cities and build them on up-to-date lines, but something can be done to ensure that we shall not go on committing . the blunders which were committed in days gone by, and it should be the aim of every local authority to ensure this. New industrial centres are being built, however, and in moat caries they are being planned or lines which are most favourable to systematic development. Town-planning ideals are being adopted more and more and, in their adoption, it is seen that transport plays an important part. The ideal of the town-planning enthusiast is to have a central area given over to industry and residential areas planned out in the surrounding country. The workers must live some miles from their place of occupotion and road or rail transport must be provided, not only for the workers, but, to bring necessaries from the industrial centre to the residential centres.
In order that living shall be as economical as possible it is necessary to have cheap, transport for passengers and goods. The vehicles which the transport organizers of the future will favour will depend upon the progress shown by transport engineers, and in this matter the motor engineer has already obtained the initiative.