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Less Traffic, Better Towns
This report, commissioned by Friends of the Earth, called for a 30% reduction in urban traffic below 1990 levels by the year 2005. The need for this is argued in terms of the "environmental imperative", including the need to limit emissions of carbon dioxide, the chief global warming gas.
Traffic growth was widespread when this report was produced, and has continued for most of the period into the 2020s. The message that we need less traffic has largely been ignored by urban authorities, apart from in a few urban centres such as central London and Nottingham. The campaign for traffic reduction overall has so far failed. The task of securing traffic reduction is now very much harder than it would have been in the early 1990s, but the need for it has continued to grow. On the positive side, awareness of the climate emergency has also grown, and hopefully this can be translated into a willingness to act.
The book describes and illustrates various policies and steps that can be taken to reduce urban traffic and promote environment-friendly modes of transport.
Contents
- The need to reduce traffic
- The benefits of less traffic
- Strategies for reduction
- Implementation issues
Is the report relevant to today's situation? I stand by the arguments put forward in the document, with the exception that in terms of the CO2 emergency, more emphasis now needs to be placed on reducing longer distance and inter-urban traffic, which accounts for the bulk of vehicle miles. Also, more emphasis needs to be given to freight traffic including local van deliveries as well as longer haul HGV traffic.
The full document can be downloaded using the link to the right.
| Book Author | Tim Pharoah |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Friends of the Earth Trust Limited, London 1992 |
| ISBN | 1 85750 120 9 |
keywords
Traffic reduction, traffic growth, urban quality, better towns, traffic restraint, traffic limitation
