g congestion is to create more of it.
Partial decentralization, or rather pseudo-decentralization, in the form of large development units away from the traditional town centres, only shifts the disease round the anatomy of the town: if it is not combined with the remodeling of the town’s transportation system, it does not cure it. Here the engineering solutions are strongly affected by the necessity for complicated intersections, which, in turn, are frustrated by the extravagant cost of land.
It is within our power to build better cities and revive the civic pride of their citizens, but we shall have to stop operating on the fringe of the problem. We shall have radically to replan them to achieve a rational density of population. We shall have to provide in them what can be called minimum “psychological elbow room.” One of the ingredients of this will be proper transportation plans. These will have to be an integral part of the overall planning process which in itself is a scientific process. If we want to plan effectively, we must collect, in an organized manner, all and complete information about the city or the town. In this process, we must not forget that cities are built by people, and that their form and shape should be subject to the will of the people. Scientific methods of data collection and analysis will indicate trends, but they will not direct action. Scientific methods are only an instrument. Man will have to set the target, and, using the res