Mike
Away next week so regret unable to attend.
Happy Easter!
Martin HigginsonOn 18-04-2019 14:45, Mike Esbester wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> You are warmly invited to the next in the Institute of Historical
> Research 'Transport & Mobility History' seminar series:
>
> Thursday 25 April, 17.30 start
> Michael Dnes (Department for Transport)
> Ringways 1944-73
>
> University College London, Dept of Geography, 26 Bedford Way building,
> in room 113.
>
> Between 1963 and 1973 the authorities of London were preparing the
> greatest transport project never to be built. Driven by the
> expectations of ever-rising car traffic, a system of three
> ‘Ringways’ – urban motorways in rings and radials – were
> proposed to make the city fit for the motor-age. Had the project been
> completed, it would have been equal in ambition to Bazalgette’s
> sewers and greater in scale than the construction of the city’s
> railway termini. As it was, it served as a monument to the vision and
> hubris of a generation of planners.
>
> Historical work to date has focused on the way Ringways were defeated,
> as this was the first time that there was significant public
> resistance to a great modernist project and an important moment in the
> history of British civic society. Yet a second story remains untold
> – why the Ringways were proposed in the first place, and how they
> evolved in the face of political realities.
>
> This provides insights into several areas:
> The development of a discourse about the role of new transport
> technology in the modern city. Wider arguments about the
> ‘obsolete’ Victorian city met with specific challenges for
> motor-travel, and were seen to demand radical action. The ways in
> which the contest for urban space was managed assumed that engineering
> was able to resolve potential conflicts without the need to
> compromise, enabling a widespread consensus on the action to be taken.
> It also showed, surprisingly, that environmental concerns were central
> to emerging plans for a transformed road network.
>
> The lead-up to the announcement of the Ringways required policymakers
> to convert abstract thought into practical plans. It is possible to
> demonstrate the extent to which these radical proposals were a
> response to real limitations in the existing policy approach, and how
> far they represented the ‘aedifice complex’ to which postwar
> planners were thought to be vulnerable. The role of new sources of
> data and new methods for understanding the traffic problem can be
> demonstrated. The importance of transport to the creation of the new
> GLC, and the political function of new roads proposals, can be
> demonstrated.
>
> Opposition to the proposals, when it came, was unprecedented; it
> quickly undermined support for the Ringway proposals. Ultimately,
> following acrimonious council elections, the programme would be
> cancelled and a different transport policy adopted in its place based
> around public transport and restraint of private motoring. By
> examining official records, it is possible to show how far the
> ‘revolution’ of 1973 had its roots in pre-existing policy, and to
> what extent the end of the ambitious plans of the postwar era
> represented continuity or change.
>
> This paper draws both on prior research into economic and social
> history, but also on Michael's own perspective as a senior official at
> the Department for Transport and head of the government’s post-2020
> roadbuilding plan. This allows a critique of policy both in a historic
> context and against subsequent developments in transport thinking.
>
> Instructions on how to find the building/ room:
>
> 26 Bedford Way is the northernmost part of the range of buildings
> that is mostly the Institute of Education. It is on the corner of
> Bedford Way and Tavistock Place, across from the Tavistock Hotel and
> Tavistock Square. You will need to ask the beadle for entry. She will
> know that we have a seminar starting at 5.30. Room 113 is on the first
> floor (lift or stairs). Turn right when you reach the first floor and
> the room is the second on the left.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Mike
>
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