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Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the impact of the energy crisis on transport policy in one British city, Newcastle upon Tyne, in the 1970s. It demonstrates how funding cuts and normative attitudes to driving impeded a potentially radical response, despite lobbying from environmental groups and parents.

Paper long abstract:

The energy crisis of the 1970s is frequently discussed as a pivotal moment in Britain when an alternative future which did not centre the motor car seemed possible. Fuel shortages, the rising cost of road infrastructure and the rise of the environmental movement all contributed to this shift in public discourse. Drawing on municipal archives and local newspapers, this paper examines the impact of such changes on one city, Newcastle upon Tyne, where plans to extend an urban motorway were abandoned and new plans for a regional light rail system developed in their place. However, it complicates this well-versed narrative, which suggests a dramatic change in policy, by examining the city’s wider response to the crisis. As in other British cities, ‘environmental areas’ and play streets were implemented in the 1970s to reduce traffic on local streets, a policy strongly supported by local parents who were concerned about children’s safety. Following lobbying by a new environmental group in the city, Friends of the Earth, Newcastle City Council also made plans for a cycle network. The paper demonstrates how the potential for a more radical response to the crisis, developed from these policies, was foreclosed by government funding cuts following the energy and related economic crisis, and the continued prioritisation of motoring by national and local government. It concludes by reflecting on how environmental groups and those who campaign for safer ‘environments’ in the twenty-first century face similar obstacles in the form of restrictive traffic legislation, constrained local authority budgets and normative attitudes to driving.