Oxford Transport History 14.02.08
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Transport and urban form: Historical, counterfactual and evolutionary perspectives Stephen Marshall Bartlett School of Planning University College London TSU research seminar: 14 February 2008 Today’s presentation • To explore the relationship between transport and urban form • To explore how history can help us understand how cities work – then and now • Generally, to stimulate thought and discussion… may ask more questions than it answers The use of history • The past is not just another country to be explored for its own sake, like a case study of an exotic location. The use of history • The past is not just another country to be explored for its own sake, like a case study of an exotic location. • Not just ‘one damn fact after another’ The use of history • The past is not just another country to be explored for its own sake, like a case study of an exotic location. • Not just ‘one damn fact after another’ • Need not be ‘bunk’ The use of history History can teach us about the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of urban formation: • Awareness of particular influences or ‘determinants of form’ that no longer apply • Awareness of particular influences that continue now, but in past were clearer or ‘isolated’ (History as ‘control’) • Awareness of the ways in which the order of what happened affects formation – how ‘what already exists’ affects ‘what continues to exist’ The counterfactual • Not ‘just for fun’ • Helps us think through cause and effect mechanisms • More challenging than simply ‘knowing what happened’ The counterfactual • Counterfactual perspectives can help us escape from fixed assumptions about the inevitability of past outcomes… The counterfactual • Counterfactual perspectives can help us escape from fixed assumptions about the inevitability of past outcomes… • and test scenarios that perhaps never occurred historically, but that could yet unlock understanding about underlying relationships between variables A historical counterfactual question • Why didn’t the Romans have urban motorways (when they had concrete, aqueducts, wheeled traffic and congested cities)? Ancient Rome The Project Gutenberg eBook, History of Julius Caesar, by Jacob Abbott Ancient Rome http://www.essential-architecture.com/ROME/RO-HIST.htm The Romans– classically good at building roads An ancient Roman road cut into the Italian mountainside. ©David Phegley, 1998 The Pantheon, Rome • “A temple to all gods” 126 AD • “Hadrian visualized himself enthroned directly under the Pantheon's oculus - a near-deity around whom not only the Roman empire but the universe, the sun, and the heavens obediently revolved.” The Pantheon, Rome • The largest (43.4m dia.) unreinforced solid concrete dome in the world. • It was built by the emperor Hadrian almost 2,000 years ago. • It was built of a very strong concrete with pozzolona cement. • Heaviest aggregate, mostly basalt, at the bottom and lighter materials, such as pumice, at the top. Pantheon – Transportation “Transportation presented another problem. Just about everything had to come down the Tiber by boat, including the 16 gray granite columns Hadrian ordered for the Pantheon's pronaos. Each was 39 feet (11.8 m) tall, five feet (1.5 m) in diameter, and 60 tons in weight. Hadrian had these columns quarried at Mons Claudianus in Egypt's eastern mountains, dragged on wooden sledges to the Nile, floated by barge to Alexandria, and put on vessels for a trip across the Mediterranean to the Roman port of Ostia. From there the columns were barged up the Tiber.” Freda Parker http://www.monolithic.com/thedome/pantheon/ Roman Aqueducts • Provided ‘elevated’ route for water • “Ancient Rome had eleven major aqueducts, built between 312 B.C. (AquaAppia ) and 226 A.D. ( Aqua Alexandrina ); the longest ( Anio Novus ) was 59 miles long.” http://www.inforoma.it • Served city population of well over a million. Segovia Valens Aqueduct in Istanbul Public domain / Ahmet Tolga Tek Painting: Zeno Diemer, Deutsches Museum München (Germany). Drawing form Ashby1934, page 137. http://www.romanaqueducts.info The great aqueduct crossing: Tor Fiscale just outside Rome (Italy) including a 13th century watchtower. From left the combined channels of the Anio Novus and the Aqua Cluadia ; from right the channels of the Aquae Marcia, Tepula and Claudia. A brick technology slipway… “In 1474, Maud Heath of Chippenham used her life savings to build 7 km of causeway to improve the swampy route from her home to market. The causeway is still used today after five hundred and thirty-three years.” http://blog.carlessinseattle.us/2007/08/index.html “Traffic and Congestion in the Roman Empire” by Cornelis van Tilburg • Road-Users: Passenger Traffic. Postal Service and Cursus Publicus. Army and Road Security. Goods Transport. Special Transport. • Traffic Congestion Toll Points. City Gates. The Situation and Building of City Gates. The Functioning of City Gates. Crowds in the City. • Traffic Policy Legislation. Traffic Circulation. Missed Chances and Political Lack of Interest. “Romans blamed for congestion charge” – BBC website, Friday, 21 February, 2003 • The Romans' flair for building roads may have been responsible for the London congestion charge, an academic has claimed. The Romans built most of their roads in to and out of the capital, setting the scene for traffic overload in London, it is suggested. • The common belief they civilised ancient Britons is also a misconception, according to Dr Francis Pryor, president of the Council for British Archaeology. • He believes they made the road system worse and stifled Celtic art with their militaristic culture. • "I don't like the Romans. They were a bunch of militaristic thugs I suppose you could say," said Dr Pryor. Roman transport modes • Foot – for most people • Litter – carried by slaves – for the very wealthy • Horses – used by the government and the military • Chariot relays • Wagons pulled by mules were used to transport goods from the countryside to the cities. • Barges and ships were used to transport goods • http://www.hadrians.com/rome/romans/sources/roman_transport.html Congestion restrictions • Roman law and tradition forbade the use of vehicles in urban areas, except in certain cases. • The Lex Iulia Municipalis (Julian Law of Municipalities) restricted commercial carts to night-time access to the city within the walls and within a mile outside the walls. Congestion restrictions • Roman law and tradition forbade the use of vehicles in urban areas, except in certain cases. • The Lex Iulia Municipalis (Julian Law of Municipalities) restricted commercial carts to night-time access to the city within the walls and within a mile outside the walls. • Today: Zona a Traffico Limitato (ZTL)! Romans & urban motorways • The Romans surely had the technology (or capability – to adapt aqueduct and/or concrete technology for roads) • They surely had the institutional capacity, logistical know-how, and resources? • They had the congestion. • But still no urban motorways…? Goods transport question “Those who read about ancient Rome are often struck by the importance attached to the shipping of grain from Egypt. Without Egyptian grain, Rome must starve. But why? What was wrong with grain grown in Italy, one asks? Why was Rome dependent on ships from Egypt in order to be able to eat?” http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1310/is_1988_Oct/ai_6955866 http://artemis.austincollege.edu/acad/history/jmoore/RomanTradeRoutesMap.jpeg Vehicular transport Chariot Historical spread of the chariot This map combines various classes of information, historical and archaeological. The 'isochrones' as given should not be considered more than rough approximations, give or take a century. (Dates are B.C.) Dbachmann / GNU Free Documentation License Chariots and harnesses • From earliest times until the eighth century AD in the West (earlier in China), the only means of harnessing horses was by the "throat-and-girth harness". It was an absurd method since the strap across the throat meant that the horse was choked as soon as he exerted himself. As long as man was restricted to the use of this pathetic harness, horsepower was all but useless for transport by cart. Even individual riders could half-strangle their mounts at a gallop. • In about the fourth century BC the Chinese made a great breakthrough…. a yoke across the horse's chest, from which traces connect it to the chariot shafts. Soon, the hard -yoke across the breast was also abandoned and replaced by the more satisfactory breast strap, commonly called the 'trace harness'…. • We must consider the collar harness as having been invented in China by the first century BC at the latest. This is a full thousand years before its appearance in Europe a century after the trace harness…. • Another and simpler way: traces could be attached from the sides of the collar directly to the vehicle. It is this form of the collar harness which is used today all round the world. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1310/is_1988_Oct/ai_6955866 Chariots • Chariots were fast – used for racing and in battle • But until invention of an adequate harness, were not useful for hauling heavy loads • Two horses harnessed in the throat-and girth fashion can pull a load of half a ton. But a single horse in a collar harness can easily pull a ton and a half. Goods transport question “Those who read about ancient Rome are often struck by the importance attached to the shipping of grain from Egypt. Without Egyptian grain, Rome must starve. But why? What was wrong with grain grown in Italy, one asks? Why was Rome