Traffic Policy - Trust Annual Report 1965
The name Preservation Trust may give the impression that the Society is concerned only with the preservation of Winchester as it was, and that we are a Canute-like body, trying to stop the tide of progress. The Chairman has frequently stated that he interprets the word 'preservation' as extended to mean preservation of Winchester as a good place to live in. This implies that when new buildings are erected, as inevitably they must be, then they will maintain the character of the city by being well designed, so that the present age, which is one of tremendous building activity, will have left its mark in no less an attractive way than in earlier periods.
The last Annual Report gave much space to the traffic problem, and no apology is needed for devoting a large part of the present report to the same subject. The underlying issue is this; whether we are going to allow the personal luxury of the individual motorist to create public squalor for the community, or not.
The Trust was very pleased to receive an invitation to meet the members of the Highways Committee of the City Council earlier this year. The statement read out at the Town meeting in July, 1964, and reproduced in our last Annual Report, was used as a basis for discussion. The Trust would like to place on record how grateful they were to have the opportunity of bringing their views to the attention of the Committee. The Trust is convinced that co-operation in this way is most valuable, in bringing the views of a large number of local electors before the Committee, charged with the difficult task of easing traffic conditions in Winchester.
It may be remembered that the Trust's policy with regard to the traffic plan was fully discussed at a members' meeting held in the Friary Hall, held shortly before the Town meeting.
The City Council's plan for traffic in Winchester has now been approved by a large majority. The debate was remarkable for the luke-warm support given by the Councillors who voted in favour. It was even condemned as a bad plan, and one was left wondering why it was felt it should receive Government support when the members themselves found so little to commend. The majority clearly wanted something different in spite of the vote in favour. The issue that secured the vote was not the merit of the plan itself, but the monetary support it was hoped to secure by having a plan before September 30th, so that Winchester could be there cap in hand as soon as funds were released for road improvements.
The Preservation Trust considers that the first priority is to let as much traffic as possible go past Winchester instead of through it. Anyone who has seen the change brought about in towns due to the construction of new motorways will know how essential this is in the preservation of ancient cities. If instead the conditions within the towns are improved, then the incentive to bypass them is delayed. The completion of the existing bypass and the construction of a new Western route is therefore the first priority.
On this subject it is worth quoting Buchanan. He states that "most traffic surveys are nearly always favourable to the ring road, for the simple reason that practically any new road, cut through a densely populated area will, as a drain cut across a sodden field fills with water, attract enough vehicles to justify its existence in terms of flow. But if a wider view is taken the actual contribution to relieving the centre is very uncertain".
Elsewhere he states that "it is asking for trouble, especially in the case of small towns, to attempt to deal with through traffic by widening the internal streets. This will merely speed the through traffic, accentuate the severance, and by virtue of the slight improvement in through traffic, delay the undertaking of more constructive measures."
While quoting from Buchanan some further relevant passages can be added. They are particularly applicable to Winchester.
"The idea that any urban area as its stands has a definable maximum traffic capacity if the environment is to be secured, is very important. There is really nothing strange about it. A factory is designed for so much plant and so many operatives, a school is designed for so many children, a house will hold so many occupants, and if more are crammed into it, it becomes a slum. There is some elasticity in capacity, but not much. Exactly the same rule applies to buildings and the amount of traffic a town can decently contain."
From this it follows that the decision to allow further development of business and office premises profoundly affects the traffic problem, and that both are inseparable. Buchanan adds on this aspect of the problem, "The power of town centres as generators and attracters of traffic seems not to have been fully understood, and mistaken reliance has been placed on ring roads for the relief of central congestion, when in fact much of the traffic has business in the central area and is not divertible to places outside that district."
On historic towns in general Buchanan states "The retention of old historic areas and areas of special architectural interest is dependant upon the maintenance of satisfactory environmental standards. There would be no point in seeking to retain such areas except in conditions in which they could be savoured and enjoyed. These areas can be retained in the age of the motor vehicle provided a reduced standard of accessibility is accepted, including a strict discipline of vehicular movement."
"It is often said that streets are for the passage of traffic only, and though this may be a sound legal view, it has obscured the fact that streets perform other functions, some of them vital. They give access to buildings, they provide an outlook from buildings, they give light and air, they are the setting for architecture, and they are the backbone of the everyday surroundings for many people. It is impossible to maintain that these functions are subordinate to the passage of the vehicles. As traffic increases it seems inevitable that the assessment of environŽmental capacity will become of more and more significance."