Urban Congestion

Abstract

There can be little doubt that population increase and urban decay rank among the world’s biggest problems. The problems are severe in industrial countries with high population densities. In the United Kingdom, for example, the population increased from 27.4 million in 1870 to 57.2 million in 1991, and with an area of 22.7 million hectares the overall density of about 1 person per 0.4 ha is one of the highest in the world. For reasons of economic opportunity, over three-quarters of the rapidly growing population have left the countryside since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution to live in towns and cities — urban areas substantially increasing in size. An estimate by Best1 in 1964, showed that in 1900 about 5 per cent of England and Wales was urban, by 1939 this figure was 8.6 per cent, and by 1950 it had reached 10 per cent. It was forecast that by 2000 it could conceivably reach 15–16 per cent.