Transport Choice and the Fragmentation of Mobility in Britain, 1959-1974

This thesis studies the fragmentation of transport choice and people’s perceptions of the three main mechanical modes between 1959 and 1974. The dawn of mass car ownership, which precipitated the decline of bus and rail demand, reshaped the importance of each to different groups. The rise of the car spread unevenly across different locations according to class, age, and gender. Thus, as the car became an increasingly common choice for men, the bus became the staple of women and the old. This thesis will explore how the public perceived these changes, including how women and the elderly felt about rail closures and the former’s inferior position as the ‘woman driver’. But the difficulties facing successive governments of adapting transport policy to this fragmentation is also studied. The government’s urban transport problems were particularly acute in the nation’s provincial cities, where patterns of movement varied and became increasingly difficult to provide for as the car splintered demand. However, the railways often did not offer a readily available alternative to enough people to prevent Beeching’s closures. The expanding suburban and extra-urban locations of postwar Britain are also explored, to see how men and women perceived the car, bus, and railways according to the different social factors facing them. What is uncovered is that although transport choice was fragmented by location, class, gender, and age, people’s perceptions of the three main modes were more similar than different. They were perceived, principally, as ways to expand individual mobility and choice, regardless of their public or private provision. The central issue for public transport was its inferior performance compared to the car in this period, before congestion became a serious issue across Britain’s polycentric cities.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Crisp, James

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Mandler, Peter

• Mobility
• Railways
• Transport
• Cars

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/a687b661-9141-4340-bcb1-4d1af1bc74f0/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.105805

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/363958