THE COMMON ROOM
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By George Wilmot
Lecturer in Transport Studies, University of London
REGIONAL STUDIES Greater Leicester (Part II)
INEVITABLY great changes must take place in the large and small conurbations of the United Kingdom within the next generation. The changes will not only be physical, but private and public transport is likely to be completely realigned. Just what form these changes will take is not always clear, but the plan for Greater Leicester in 1991 issued last year by W. K. Smigielski, the city planning officer, gives one blueprint. The plan should arrest the attention of all transport students and, for those engaged in examinations, the plan can be used as a useful example of the future urban transport outlook for a smaller conurbation.
The plan envisages the vigorous growth of Leicester and its immediate neighbourhood to a population of 620,000 from the present 450,000, for reasons looked at last week. A vast storehouse of information was collected about traffic habits and flows for all types of public and private vehicles; even pedestrian journeys came under the microscope. This background of information was the starting point for a number of alternatives to be pursued, including the allowing of private cars completely free access in the city's central area, which would have involved massive rebuilding. The planners eventually came down on the side of a system dominated by public transport with limited penetration of the city centre by private vehicles.
The Key The key to the plan is a ring motorway around the perimeter of the city, linked by radial roads. This motorway would divert all through traffic from the city centre and numerous car parks would be adjacent to its route.
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Access to the centre beyond this inner ring would be restricted and within the ring the bus would be the chief transport agent. A complex of bus operations is envisaged, embracing a single-decker express service to the centre from the major car parks, inter-district routes intended to link the car parks with residential areas, and a city centre service with buses running along some roads for their exclusive use. In addition, rickshaw --type electricallydriven taxis are considered desirable to improve circulation in the congested areas, as are elevated pavement conveyors for pedestrians in the main shopping areas.
Monorail Route 1 he controversial monorail appears in the plan, as a route from Wigston in the south of the city to Beaumont Leys in the north-west of Leicester. This route would link the heaviest residential concentrations with the city centre. The basic cost of the primary road pattern is £135 m., but this figure does not include many of the secondary features.
An apparent weakness of the plan is that it declines to be specific about limited access for cars, as no criteria is outlined and the position regarding access for C licensees is not clearly stated. Neither is there any reference as to how the present various bus operators are to be co-ordinated or whether they are to be integrated in one Greater 1.eicester authority.
Nevertheless, the plan is a brave effort to look at Leicester 30 years hence and to indicate the vital necessity of planning for transport at an early stage. Many more similar studies of other large towns are needed--and quickly.