ABSTRACT
This book tries to envision what a transport system that meets the needs of the disabled, the weak, the young and the elderly might be like: one that is integral to the urban landscape rather than displacing the lifeblood of the street. It would need to be one that respected the essence of each community and connected rather than created barriers to activity. We are aware in our everyday lives of the dominance of transport infrastructure in our communities: the distant activity and noise from the nearest trunk road or distributor road 20 hours a day; the busy junction in the town or city where impatient drivers and lycra-clad cyclists wait ready to roll; the noisy, polluting buses stopping and starting in our shopping streets; the broad expanses of car parks attached to edge-or out-of-town supermarkets; the bustle of railway stations in the morning and evening rush hours; and the endless waiting and queuing in sterile airports. Moving about our cities is rarely an enjoyable experience for most people. How has this state of affairs come about when infrastructure is so important in our lives and to the efficiency of the economy? According to O’Sullivan (1980) there is disconnect between the different components of the transport network because of the relentless competition, throughout history, from promoters of new technologies to capture customers from the established transport service providers. Competition and the pursuit of profit would appear, then, to have had a controlling influence on the provision of transport services to different locations in our cities. The palimpsest of layers of private sector provision has been interspersed by public sector investment in transport, welfare and social facilities, particularly since the Second World War. The state has cooperated with, and sought to gain from, private sector endeavour and as investors have looked outwards from the centre of towns and cities the concentration of spatial opportunities has dissipated. Central to understanding the social importance of these processes are the concepts of inter-linkage, connection and integration and, in particular, the cumulative impact of the decisions to invest (and not to invest) in transport, housing, health, education, industry, commerce, and leisure facilities. These concepts play an important part in understanding and deciphering the empirical case studies in Chapter 7 and will be explored and developed in later chapters.
