Urban Design Library

Planning for Man and Motor

Urban Design Library #20
Paul Ritter

5th September 2015 and The Economist proclaimed that ‘…Cities are starting to put pedestrians and cyclists before motorists. That makes them nicer-and healthier-to live in…’. In 1964 Pergamon Press published Paul Ritter’s Planning for Man and Motor. It seems that it takes at least 50 years before urban design ideas are widely accepted.

The early 1960s saw a growing concern with the impact of the car on people’s lives. Traffic in Towns was published in November 1963, the Smeed Report examined road pricing in 1962. The immediate post-war period provided an opportunity for a fresh look at the way people and cars interact. In 1955 Coventry had been rebuilt as a pedestrian precinct. Planning for Man and Motor was a timely publication. It is a surprise to see that the book was dedicated to the now disgraced Robert Maxwell but he was the owner of Pergamon Press, then a well-respected academic imprint.

Paul Ritter was an architect and planner with a special interest in the social impact of development, and this work went back at least to 1957. Ritter’s particular interest was the Radburn approach to housing and the book is driven by Ritter’s passion for the approach. In many ways it is a cross between encyclopaedia and polemic: the language is sometimes dry and dull and other times almost biblical in its fervour.

The book is divided into eight main parts supported by translations in French and German, an extensive bibliography and many illustrations. Ritter’s stated aim was to establish ‘…an ecologically harmonious environment for man in which an efficient use of the vehicle plays a crucial part…’.

The first part compares and contrasts the characteristics of people and cars. There are a series of short analyses of built examples. Unsurprisingly Ritter concludes that the examples demonstrate the case for carpeople segregation. In his second part man’s needs as an organism are examined and in particular the value of walking is encouraged, a form of exercise currently promoted as the healthiest. This section is extensively illustrated with examples from Chester to Coventry. The ‘…Study of an Urban Pedestrian Piazza…’ is especially interesting and is based on work by Christopher Millard looking minute by minute, at the use of the Piazza del Palio in Siena. This was possibly the first time that such a detailed study of the use of an urban area had been made, and it is well worth reading. The supporting photographs reflect the ‘serial vision’ used in Gordon Cullen’s Townscape.

The following part looks at the characteristics of cars and in it, with the gift of hindsight, Ritter makes some curious comments. Looking at Man as Driver (note man not person), he concludes that there is a distinct danger that HIS attention may be distracted by ‘pretty girls’ and therefore argues that bridges which allow motorists ‘…a free view of those walking across…’ should be avoided. What a dull prospect for pedestrians crossing via the bridge: are they to be screened by high parapets? On the ‘emotional state’ of drivers Ritter concludes ‘the road itself should contribute by making driving as pleasant as possible’. This contrasts with current views that drivers need to be unnerved to a degree if they are to be fully alert to possible dangers. Overall this section is a mine of data ranging from calculating road capacity and parking to the role of public and commercial vehicles.

Ritter’s real intentions are exposed in the next part, New Towns with Traffic Segregation. The 1960s marked the start of the second wave of British New Towns and at the time Ritter was writing, only Cumbernauld in Scotland had been started. Ritter quotes extensively from the ideas behind its plan and also from the admired but never built Hook. Both plans were wholly committed to the segregation of pedestrians and cars. One wonders how Ritter felt about the quality of the urban experience finally created at at Cumbernauld, Skelmersdale and Runcorn which followed later. Fifteen examples are drawn from all over the world, from Erith to Sputnik in the USSR, and as a gazetteer of sixties planning ideas it is a splendid summary. Ritter could not resist deriding those who could not see the value of the Radburn idea, and under the heading The Neighbourhood Concept, comments that ‘…it must be borne in mind that there was a strong supercilious resistance, until very recently, to the Radburn Idea, merely because some early examples of it had not pleased sophisticated, shallow minds who threw out the baby with the bath-water in condemning the basic idea…’. Ritter had no love for the Mark 1 New Towns: in his view they had failed and become ‘…in many instances, meaningless collections of houses…’.

In his next section Ritter looks at Urban Renewal. He comments that ‘A city does not live by cars alone…’. The car would not be banned totally; it just has to be parked somewhere where it will not interfere with quiet pedestrian enjoyment. Above all, he claims that good public transport is required. Following examination of New York, San Francisco and Detroit, four basic needs for urban renewal emerge; in summary they are:

  • a growing pedestrian environment
  • a public transport system linked to…
  • …central area uses and park and ride systems
  • and the careful use of vacant space and a multilevel centre.

Ritter then moves on to look at the range of opportunities for pedestrian-vehicular segregation. This part concludes with a very full set of examples from throughout the world including the Stroget shopping street in Copenhagen, where public pressure forced the successful introduction of a pedestrian only area.

The final part looks at traffic segregation in residential areas. Here the focus is Ritter’s beloved Radburn Principle: over 100 pages are devoted to this section, almost a third of the book. As a result, it is a very complete but almost wholly uncritical analysis of housing developments, and for that alone Planning for Man and Motor is worth revisiting.

URBAN DESIGN 141 Winter 2017 Publication Urban Design Group

As featured in URBAN DESIGN 141 Winter 2017

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Read On

London County Council, 1961 | The Planning of a New Town (aka The book of Hook)
Traffic in Towns | The specially shortened edition of the Buchanan Report, 1963 | Penguin
Peter Newman and Jeffrey Kenworthy, 2015 | The End of Automobile Dependence. How Cities are Moving beyond Car-based Planning | Island Press (reviewed in UD 140)

Planning for Man and Motor Publication Urban Design Group
Publisher
Pergamon Press
Published
1964
Reviewed By
Richard Cole architect and planner, formerly Director of Planning and Architecture of the Commission for New Towns