THE PARKING OF MOTORS IN TOWNS
BY LORD MONTAGU OF BEAULIEU.
ALL large towns are now faced with the problem not only of reducing traffic congestion, but of accomo- , dating the motor vehicles of persons shopping, visiting, or attending to business. And this difficulty obviously will become greater as years go on, not merely because of the automatic increase of cars—an increase of about twenty per cent. per annum—but because owner-drivers, already the largest percentage of the users of the road, will be more numerous. The owner of a big car if he is not actually driven by a chauffeur generally has his man to look after it when he is absent from it. But I should not estimate this class to-day at more than ten to fifteen per cent. of the total number of car-owners. Eighty-five to ninety per cent. of the cars used in towns belong to owner- drivers, and it is here that the chief difficulty of the problem arises. It is idle to suggest that every owner- driver should take his car to a local garage while he is busy elsewhere. To begin with, all the garages built and building in big cities would accommodate only a small proportion of such cars ; besides, there is no reason why the owner-driver should have to pay for the storage of his car or have to walk a long distance to and fro.
All' kinds of suggestions have been made as to under- ground garages beneath squares or above ground on open public places ; immense garages, with tiers and tiers of floors and central lifts able to accommodate many him- dreds of cars are also being talked about. Another sug- gestion has been made that all cars in a certain area should go to defined places in comparatively empty streets and stand in rows like cabs on a cab rank, either in the middle or at the side of the street. Another plan would be for the police to be drastic and prevent any un- attended car at all being left anywhere. The only result of such a step would be that a certain proportion of the owner-driver cars, in addition to those with chauffeurs, would have to go on perambulating the streets, producing further congestion and needlessly wearing out tyres and using petrol. It will be seen, therefore, that the problem is difficult to solve, and the suggestions I am putting forward here for consideration are made with this proviso —that I do not at present see any single method of over- coming the difficulty of parking. I think, however, that the combination of some of the suggestions I make would do a great deal to alleviate the difficulty.
To begin with, let us take London as a concrete instance of a big city. Starting with the West End, there are numerous squares adjacent to shopping centres which might be used for parking, both above and below ground. Take the Bond Street shopping area as typical. There are Hanover Square on the north-east side and Berkeley Square on the south-west side. In each case the centre of the square is practically unused during the whole of the twenty-four hours. Occasionally you see a lady with her lap dog walking round the gritty gravel paths, and on fine days in summer a few children from neighbouring houses with their nurses may be playing under the trees. But it cannot be denied that the use of these squares by the present frontagers is infmitesimal, and totally incom- mensurate with their value to the community as a whole, which so seriously needs more space. Some compensa- tion, of course, would have to be given to the owners of houses facing on the squares if existing rights were seriously depreciated or extinguished. But were I a frontager, I would prefer that cars were parked not close by, or opposite my house, congesting the roadway I use, and annoying me by various automobile noises, but further off behind, say, a high railing or a screen of shrubs, thus leaving my roadway clear and the noise greatly lessened. But there may be the aesthetic objection that the trees would have to be cut. There is no reason why this should be done. • Here and there the cutting of a tree or two might be necessary, but for parking purposes a tarred or bituminized surface would be quite unnecessary, as there would be no fast or heavy traffic in the area. In most cases the trees could be left exactly as they are, with their roots able to benefit as now by the rain water.
When we come to the City and the great business areas in the east of London, the problem is far more difficult, though at Finsbury Square and Tower Hill space might be used for parking. As regards the City itself and the daily tidal flow of vehicles in and out, there seems to be nothing but a continuance of the present system whereby the vehicle having deposited its passenger is either garaged at some distance away or in most cases sent home. Burrowing under the squares may be possible in some parts of London, especially in the Western areas, but in the City this would be generally impracticable. Nearly everywhere there is a network of water pipes, gas and hydraulic mains, sewers, telephone circuits and railways close under the surface. And the narrowness of City streets precludes any parking in them. The City, therefore, is an area to be treated by itself.
Now in London as a whole we do not use our parks nearly enough. Take Hyde Park and Regent's Park as two notable examples. It would not be difficult in both of these to have underground parking places and to use more efficiently certain open spaces above ground where there are no trees and little traffic near, for instance, near the Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park and the Achilles statue in Hyde Park. In Hyde Park no through motor traffic is allowed on the road between Hyde Park Corner and the Magazine, and this road might be used for parking the cars of people riding in Rotten Row or walking. The old theory—which takes an uncon- scionable time a-dying—that horses are frightened by motor-cars, and that one road in any case must be reserved free from the dreadful motor juggernaut, is surely by this time out of date. Probably it would be almost impossible to find a horse that is frightened by a motor-ear nowadays, or the owner of a horse who has not got a motor-car himself. The whole length, there- fore, of the Hyde Park Corner-Magazine road could be used for parking cars on at least one side of the road.
There remains the shopping problem. What is to happen to the owner-driver's car when he or she is shopping ? Off the Brompton Road--on both sides— there arc several squares which might be utilised. Behind Selfridge's you have Manchester Square and Bryanston Square, while not far from Marshall and Sneigrove's and the Oxford Circus area there is Cavendish Square„ and Portland Place, a street many times wider than the traffic demands. At the lower end of Regent Street there is Golden Square, and for the Pall Mall and St. James's Street district there is St. James's Square, inside of which 1 have hardly ever seen a human being walking or sitting, though eats are plentiful.
So severe is the pressure now in shopping areas and so vigilant are the police that some of the largest concerns which cater specially for women have secured premises near by which they have converted into garages for their customers. It is very obliging and incidentally very wise of these big establishments to have done this, for it undoubtedly attracts customers, who know that they will not be hustled and possibly prosecuted by the police for leaving their cars unattended even for a short time. But all the shops cannot do this, so at best it is only a small solution.
The truth is, and we must face it, that space must be found for parking motor vehicles of all types. To allow vehicles in large numbers to stand in the streets is becoming increasingly impossible and inconvenient. It therefore follows logically that we must park under or over the surface, just as we must before long build underground or overhead highways for traffic. This inevitable development may take some time and there will be much ink spilt before the authorities and the public arc driven by sheer necessity to accept the only solution. Not by old regulations but by new ideas must the difficulties which have arisen from our new kind of locomotion be surmounted. We shall have to park cars in, over or under squares, and build eight or ten-storied or subterranean commercial garages. And I dare to prophesy that it will not be very long before something drastic has to be done in deference to public opinion, which is daily becoming more irritated by the congestion of the streets.
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