RING ROAD: BIRMINGHAM AND THE COLLAPSE OF THE MOTOR CITY IDEAL IN 1970s BRITAIN

Gunn, Simon

doi:10.1017/s0018246x16000613

Cited by 28 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…A mentalist conception of decisions, insofar as it obscures this importance of wider infrastructure via its focus on agential deliberation, therefore understates the importance of this issue, concentrating on relatively smaller-scale actions that center on the agent's psychology. An historical assessment will reveal that the role of policy in infrastructure, and transport more widely, has been far from passive or inert: It has been contingent, deliberate, and, if this word be allowed, intentional [98]. It is not by any means suggested that there are easy answers to the problems in transport, but by casting a light on the importance of infrastructure in addition to discrete individual motives as such, it is hoped that policy-makers will be encouraged to take a broader view of possible remedies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Car Use: Intentional, Habitual, or Both? Insights from Anscombe and the Mobility Biography Literature

2019

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Policy-makers have recognized that changing travel behavior is important. People, however, do not change their behavior so readily, particularly the use of the car. A central concept that has been invoked to account for this has been the concept of habit. However, various studies also present people as having concrete reasons for driving: Their choices are intentional. This interdisciplinary study attempts to reconcile these two understandings of travel behavior by drawing on insights from the philosopher Anscombe and a growing body of travel research termed the mobility biography literature. It applies some of Anscombe's insights from Intention to the act of driving. With regard to the mobility biography literature, it draws out conceptual implications both from theoretical and empirical aspects: In particular, the characterization of travel decisions as nested in a hierarchy of life decisions and the association of life events with changes in travel decisions. It concludes that a broader conceptualization of human behavior leads to a broader view as to what policy-makers can do. It reminds us that transport is 'special', that transport and policy are inextricable, and that the importance of infrastructure provision should not be ignored.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Car Use: Intentional, Habitual, or Both? Insights from Anscombe and the Mobility Biography Literature

2019

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“…He was not in favour of large-scale plans which, he felt, were "often obsolete by the time they were put into effect" (Sutcliffe & Smith, 1974, p. 448) and the city had pre-war plans for slum clearance and road improvements (Manzoni, 1955). Post-war reconstruction to create a fully-functioning "motor city" occurred, but in a piecemeal fashion (Gunn, 2018). There were plans, but nothing comprehensive until the city belatedly responded to the legal requirement in the 1947 Act to prepare a city-wide Development Plan.…”

Section: The Examples Of Bath Birmingham and Hullmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The "jealousy and disagreement between the city engineer and the city architect" (Ross, City Estates officer, interviewed in Sutcliffe, 1967Sutcliffe, -1969 certainly led to problems of implementation. Ultimately, later criticisms centred on how many urban dwellers' experiences of the new city were subordinated to the desires of overbearing transport systems, and a redeveloped centre built around cultures of leisure, consumption, and work (Gunn, 2018).…”

Section: The Examples Of Bath Birmingham and Hullmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Yet this was rarely a consideration in the reconstruction plans, which understandably focused on the redevelopment itself over periods of 20, 30, or even 50 years. Even areas designed and constructed early in the reconstruction era have not all withstood these challenges with, for example, Birmingham's 1940s-designed inner ring road being viewed as a "concrete collar" restricting the growth of the city core by 1988 (Sparks, 1993) and partially demolished in the early 2000s, part of a wider reaction against the car culture embedded in the city's post-war urban form (Gunn, 2018).…”

Section: Evaluating Post-catastrophe Changes Seven Decades Latermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Revisioning and Rebuilding Britain’s War-Damaged Cities

Larkham

Adams

2022

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This article presents an overview of Second World War bomb damage to British towns and cities and a systematic evaluation of the relationship between damage, revisioning, replanning, and actual reconstruction in a sample of cities—Bath, Birmingham, and Hull. Two were severely affected by aerial bombing as port/industrial targets, and the third for propaganda purposes as a historical city. Two had extensive plans produced by eminent consultants (both involving Patrick Abercrombie) but the city managers of the third did not support “big plans.” Birmingham, without a specific plan, rebuilt extensively and relatively quickly. Hull’s plan was disliked locally and virtually vanished. Bath was repaired rather than rebuilt. These contrasting experiences have shaped the contemporary city via subsequent generations of replanning (not all of which was implemented) and, in Birmingham’s case, the demolition of major reconstruction investments after relatively short lifespans. The article demonstrates the difficulty of conceptualising a generic approach to post-catastrophe reconstruction and the problems of such large-scale change over a short period for the longer-term effective functioning of the city.

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“…48 Colin Buchanan in his famous report "Traffic in towns" from 1963 tried to take up environmental concerns into new concepts for urban automobility and infrastructure. 49 In Switzerland in the context of an environmental turn from 1970 onwards urban citizens increasingly resisted to new automobile infrastructural projects, as Haefeli has shown. 50 Parallel to these discourses throughout Europe from around 1970 onwards in West-Berlin also the general political context and the mode of governance substantially changed.…”

Section: Rearranging the Balances Of Power Within The Municipal Adminmentioning

confidence: 99%

The making of the “Stadtautobahn” in Berlin after World War Two: a socio-histoire of power about urban automobile infrastructure

Bernhardt

2020

The Journal of Transport History

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The paper analyses the West-Berlin pathway to the “car-friendly city” in the context of the Cold War. It starts by retracing some long term continuities since the 1920s and gives special attention to the institutional settings and power struggles within the municipal authorities. The prospective character of the planning for the “Stadtautobahn” since 1945 which was far ahead of the real motorisation of the time is explained by the strong political and ideological intention to demonstrate the superiority of the Western life style. The Berlin case is reflected in the context of projects for ring-roads in other European cities.

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RING ROAD: BIRMINGHAM AND THE COLLAPSE OF THE MOTOR CITY IDEAL IN 1970s BRITAIN

Abstract: Reconstructing Britain's cities to accommodate the 'motor revolution' was an integral part of urban renewal in the post-war decades. This article shows how opposition to urban motorways had a pivotal role in the retreat from urban modernism in the 1970s.

Cited by 28 publications

References 14 publications

Car Use: Intentional, Habitual, or Both? Insights from Anscombe and the Mobility Biography Literature

Car Use: Intentional, Habitual, or Both? Insights from Anscombe and the Mobility Biography Literature

Revisioning and Rebuilding Britain’s War-Damaged Cities

The making of the “Stadtautobahn” in Berlin after World War Two: a socio-histoire of power about urban automobile infrastructure

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