Placebo
Page 67
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
FXCEPT for one thing, there is likely to be fairly placid acceptance of the policy laid down in a 4
booklet recently issued by the London County Council. The exception is the title. The L.C.C. claim to be describing a plan to combat congestion in central London, but contrive to do so With scarcely a reference to transport, which after all is largely the 'cause of the. congestion and may provide the ultimate cure.
To some people, it may not seem a serious fault that the L.C.C. plan does not live up to its title. There are plenty of excellent books with misleading names. What is alarming about the booklet is that the L.C.C. may sincerely mean exactly what they say, and imagine that they have solved a problem by leaving out most of the difficult equations.
The booklet is largely devoted to proposals for keeping large office buildings outside the central area. Most people, except those who happen to want to work in central London, will agree with the Council's assessment of the Situation. Within an area of a few square miles are carried on an astonishing range of cultural, social, political, interesting and professional activities. Many of them are threatened by the growing demand of trade and industry for office space, and disorganized by the tide of humanity that surges in and out of the district every day of the week.
Were it not for the workers and the visitors, central London would be almost a city of the dead. • Its population had declined to 225,000 in 1951. The L.C.C. would like to encourage people to live in the centre once again, and to slow down the growth in the number of business premises.
In 1948, they accepted a plan for plot ratio zones, ranging from twice as much floor space as ground space in some districts to a ratio of 51 to I in the district round the Bank of England. Now the zones have been revised, with the general intention of promoting more gracious living and less crowded business activities.
Not Discouraged
The general effect of the plan, if it could ever be satisfactorily implemented, would be to discourage entry into central London. This is the principle behind several recent proposals, and colours many of the recommendations of the London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee. Unfortunately, it seems to take a surprising amount of discouragement to stop people from going to town, either for business or pleasure.
There may be sound reasons why too heavy a.restriction would not be a good thing. The report of the Runciman Committee on horticultural marketing, published last January, showed how easy it is to condemn Covent Garden, and yet how difficult it would be to abolish the market, or even to move it to another site. The Traders' Road Transport Association and the Road Haulage Association have gone a long way towards proving that bans on the loading and unloading of commercial vehicles, superficially attractive though they may seem, raise more questions than they solve, apart from causing hardship.
Covent Garden, and many places where bans on commercial goods vehicles are .proposed, or in force, are in the central London area. They are not mentioned in
the L.C.C. booklet. The few reference's to transport are brief and incidental. -The effects of the motor vehicle upon "our habits, our streets and. Our 'buildings" are so. much " a matter of everyday experience" that they
could hardly be completely ignored. .
In a fevii words, the booklet paints the picture of transport misery. There are crowded trains, queues, crawling buses, traffic jams, thronged pavements. There is even an. acknowledgment that there is no single answer to the complex problem of London congestion.
One is left with the impression that the difficulties are not being taken. in the right order, and that the L.C.C, in spite of experience, have not grasped the, truth that the change in our habits brought about by the growth and improvement of transport is permanent, and cannot be ignored or cancelled out. However ingeniously the ratio of floor space and ground space is devised,. it is unlikely to have any effect on the traffic in and out of central London. At the most, it may merely change the nature of the traffic rather than the volume.
• Dam at Source
Transport is the key to the problem of London congestion. The only' practicable policy is to plan for the likely transport requirements of the future rather than attempt to dam those requirements at the source. In every magazine and from every platform, the philosophers condemn the modern restlessness, the urge -to take longer and longer journeys at an ever greater speed, with no . evidence likely to satisfy a philosopher that there is anything worth while at the journey's end.
There may be something in the condemnation, but one must face it that it will have no effect on general behaviour. People will continue to make use of what they regard as the blessings of modern transport. They will continue to flock into town, to compete for jobs there, to crowd the pavements and the shops of the main thoroughfares, and to endure the uncomfortable journey to and fro each day.
The L.C.C. claim with truth that congestion in central London provides the biggest town-planning problem in Britain today. It is also one of the biggest in the world. One cannot help thinking that there are few other capital cities that would be content to start on the problem in the L.C.C. manner. This was certainly not the impression brought back from Paris and Brussels by the all-party group of M.P.s that recently visited the two cities under the auspices of the Roads Campaign Council.
Problem of Communications
Congestion is a problem of communications. New roads or improved roads must be built in or through London. They should provide the setting within which the L.C.C. can elaborate their plans for sharing.building space in accordance with demands and with amenities.
With this in mind, the L.C.C. booklet might well be revised to meet the needs,as far as they can be estimated, of .. tomorrow's ,transport. As an exercise . in town .planning, the. booklet has its moments. As an Attempt at a design for living, it, has a tendency towards the style known as contemporary.. But, as a cure for congestion, it is of :Attie more. use than what the doctors call a placebo.