Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
by the car has created a large group of multi-
purpose trips carried out within urban areas.
Changes in land use, such as the trend towards
establishing large retail complexes, and industrial
and business parks on the periphery of urban areas,
have altered the traditional centripetal/ centrifugal
nature of many personal flows and created new
journey patterns, with the majority being made
by car rather than by public transport, which is
less able to cater for new directions of travel.
Freight traffic assumes a complex pattern, with
the transfer of finished or semi-finished products
between factories in towns and cities and the
export and import of raw materials and products
between urban centres. Scheduled and irregular
goods distribution within urban areas involves
deliveries to individual households, to scattered
small retail locations and to larger shopping units
or retailing complexes.
Current modal choice for personal and
freight movements illustrates the conflict
between the consumers' preferred means of
travel and the transport planners' perception of
the most efficient blend of modes, public and
private, road or rail, for a particular city. The
search for the most suitable methods of meeting
demand with what are recognised as the most
efficient transport modes is at the heart of the
urban transport planning process, and a set of
solutions must be found and applied so as to
satisfy movement needs without seriously
damaging the overall urban environment. The
major problems are closely interrelated and can
be identified to varying degrees of seriousness
in all major towns and cities. Road congestion
is a primary problem (Plate 34.1), caused by the
overloading of urban highways by private cars,
buses and commercial vehicles, and is most
apparent during the journey-to-work periods.
Pressure on inner-city car-parking facilities is
closely linked to congestion, and plans for car
restraint must involve both mobile and parked
vehicles. In third world cities, the difficulties
caused by congestion are exacerbated by the
mixture of motorised and other traffic on the
roads. Problems in these cities will become much
more serious if the current forecasts for national
Plate 34.1
Traffic congestion in central Glasgow
(photograph: P.T.Kivell).
car growth in developing countries are realised: in
Malaysia, for example, the total number of cars is
likely to rise sixfold between 1986 and 2025
(Button and Ngoe 1991). Congestion is also
common on public transport systems, particularly
in the morning and evening peak periods, when
bus and rail vehicle capacity is often exceeded. This
problem can occur even when these systems are
operating at maximum frequency, and
overcrowded buses in turn contribute to the
overall pattern of road congestion.
Declining patronage of urban public transport is
a direct consequence of the continuing increase in
private car trips in towns and cities. In the period
before road congestion reduced the attractiveness
of car travel, municipal and privately owned rail and
bus undertakings saw their passenger markets begin
to decrease, and this process has continued through
to the late 1990s in most urban areas. A cycle of
decline is established, in which declining revenues
