ABSTRACT
The late 1950s and 1960s saw the modernisation of Britain's road and railway networks, but while road modernisation was equated with expansion and construction, railway modernisation comprised of rationalisation alongside reconstruction and electrification. Motorways became an accepted part of the British landscape, social and economic life. In the 1970s, motorways served as the settings for a number of fictional sexualised encounters and dystopian futures, while from the mid-1960s community groups and environmental organisations started to criticise the planning and construction of motorways, particularly in urban areas. Changing attitudes to Britain's motorways appear to mirror broader shifts in the post-war world, from the widespread embrace of reconstruction discourses and modern planning, architecture and design, to concerns about the undemocratic role of the planning process, the effects of motorways on local residents and concerns about the environmental consequences of car travel.
