THE HELL OF OXFORD STREET
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Much to be commended is his picture t Oxford Street as an existentialist Hell. ' _simply refuse to believe," he said, -that if turmoil of pedestrians and vehicles in th street, the noise, the stench and the gener: misery of the street when it is raining, wit bus queues waiting in patient wretchednes are things that should be accepted in th age of science in what we are pleased t think of as a civilised city." It could E argued in reply that people visit Oxfor Street of their own free will and might eve prefer the ambience that Professc Buchanan finds so repellent. But it must b agreed that he has made his point wit some force.
A piquant love-hate relationship is devel oping between Professor Buchanan am the motor vehicle. He describes the legisla tive history of the last 50 years as "littere( with Acts which have had the co-ordinatiol of transport as their first or secondary aim.' Not one has succeeded in bringing orde into the field. "The bedevilling factor, o course, has been the motor vehicle, whosi very attraction is that it permits randon unco-ordinated movements." At anothe point he speaks of young people driving it the evening and enjoying "the inestimabh privacy of a car."
It is difficult to resist his contention tha there must be a long-term plan, not fol transport in isolation but embracing lanc use and building development. The motoi vehicle, he says, must be accepted as inevitably the mainstay of the transport system fot both persons and goods and the need for additional road space should be frankly recognized. He repeats his basic conception of the creation of environmental areas in which transport use is restricted to traffic with business in the areas but which is also served by a highway network.