TRAFFIC GROWTH AND PLANNING POLICY

The London Research Centre was commissioned in the Spring of 1990 by the RTPI (Royal Town Planning Institute) to carry out a study of traffic growth and planning policy against a background of National Road Traffic Forecasts (NRTF) of growth between 83% and 142% by 2025. A wide range of planning authorities, professionals, business and other organisations were consulted and this article outlines the findings of the report. Transport is seen as a major influence on urban form. NRTF would appear to represent 'unrestrained demand' which would in fact be restrained by capacity. Development control is at present more concerned with highways than the transport issues which influence urban form in the long term. There is also a limit to what town planning mechanisms can achieve in relation to traffic restraint on their own. Other policy instruments such as taxation of fuel and employer-provided parking need to work with land use planning. A debate is advocated on the future form of urban areas and what level of sacrifice people are prepared to accept in private mobility for the common good. Areas requiring further investigation are identified and include the relationship between traffic congestion/restraint and the health of local economies, the potential effect of road pricing on land-use dispersal, homeworking and the concept of 'car-free' zones.