Discussion. Recent Developments in Highway Planning in Glasgow.

Abstract

It was quite clear in the Glasgow studies that the free use of the motor car to the city centre would be consistent neither with the financial resources that were available for the construction of new roads, nor with the nature of the centre itself. We therefore allowed for restriction on car usage throughout the study. We have recommended that travel by car to the city centre should be regulated through the control of parking by the city. This method is capable of fairly immediate application.Further it could work in tandem with more sophisticated pricing mechanisms when and if these become available. A second point which we should like to stress is the close inter-relation between the renewal and redevelopment of the city and the urban roads programme. This inter-relation calls for close co-operation between a wide variety of disciplines from the earliest stages of the scheme. One very important aspect of this co-operation is the need to examine in some depth land uses adjacent to the motorway. On the question of system planning, we believe that above a certain size of city, and particularly if there is a strong commercial centre, it is difficult to postulate an urban motorway system which will not require a road surrounding the centre both to serve it and to act as the focus of the motorway system. Whether or not this i s known as an inner ring is irrelevant to the problem. The next point concerns the depth of design studies, where we believe that a plan should be specific and should deal with the lines of the roads in some detail, despite the uncertainties inherent in a long term road programme. M r CullenWe believe the decision to develop a system of primary roads to motorway standards on alignments separate from existing arterial roads has proved to be the right one. In the only two instances where high capacity routes have been proposed along the line of an existing arterial road there have been increasing difficulties at every stage as the plans have been developed. 87.The staging of the construction of the motorway system and the building of individual contracts so as to cause the least feasible disturbance should be considered at the earliest stages in preliminary design. The possibility of minimizing the cost of the first part of a staged interchange should also be considered at the early design stage.88. It is of interest that the first target stage for the motorway system, 1975, produces assigned traffic volumes on the motorways then built generally similar to those which they will ultimately carry. This tends to support the decision to build the full cross section as each stage of the system is built. It is also interesting that the traffic assignment to the 1975 system shows relief to existing roads well away from the new motorways.89. We believe that the geometric design standards adopted for urban motorways, especially near the central area, should be flexible. Probably the most practical way of achieving this flexibility is to have three values for each design standard: a normal minimum, a desi...