Previously unpublished images of buses in Milton Keynes. Designated as a new town some fifty years ago, Milton Keynes was designed for the car owner, but public transport has provided a vital link to many.
The UK's largest new town, Milton Keynes, is the product of a Transatlantic planning culture and a plan for a relatively low-density motorised city generously endowed with roads, parklands, and the infrastructure of cabling for communications technology. At its heart was the charismatic and influential Richard (Lord) Llewelyn-Davies. A Labour Peer with various personal and professional interests in the USA, he drew upon the writings of American academics Melvin Webber and Herbert J. Gans, who were also invited to advise on social trends in relation to the urban context in the preparation for the Plan. The Plan bristled with an understanding that motorised transport and communications technology would shape the city of the future, and influence the nature and reach of ‘community’ and social interactions beyond the localised realm. Prepared by Llewelyn-Davies, Weeks, Forestier-Walker and Bor, for Milton Keynes Development Corporation, and presented to the Minister for Housing and Local Government in 1970, the Plan for Milton Keynes is a vibrant expression of Sixties’ idealism and forward-thinking. In creating the ‘Little Los Angeles in North Buckinghamshire’, a low-density city whose citizens mostly rely upon the private motor car for their mobility, the Plan has become increasingly unfashionable as agendas for sustainability have called motorisation into question. Yet the gridroads and the gridsquares within them have been very popular with the people of Milton Keynes. The expansive thinking behind the Plan has important lessons for the limitations of current urban transport policy, and that cosy notions of neighbourhood and locally-driven community have little resonance for understanding the character of social relations in the twenty first century. The planning of Milton Keynes was more realistic and nuanced than much urban policy formulation today.
Northampton, the county town of Northamptonshire, is rich in transport history. 1880 saw several tram routes commence operation within the Northampton Borough, being operated by the Northampton Street Tramway Company. After this, public transport in the town began to develop. The tram network being electrified in 1901. The 1910s saw a number of independent bus operators begin to link Northampton with the surrounding villages, introducing motor bus operation into the town. Over the years, Northampton has been home to numerous independent bus and coach operators. Two major operators also served the town, Northampton Corporation Transport (later Northampton Transport and First Northampton) and United Counties / Stagecoach Midlands. Northampton’s Trams and Buses explores the development of the tram network within Northampton, as well as exploring how bus services in the Northampton, Wootton, Hardingstone and Moulton areas of Northamptonshire have developed from the early 1900s to 2021.
An informative history covering nearly a century of this British bus company, packed with facts and photos. United Counties Buses: A Fleet History begins by taking a brief look at the expansion of the United Counties Omnibus Company since its formation in September 1921 through its demise in October 2014. The company acquired over fifty independent operators between 1922 and 1938, giving it prominence in Northamptonshire and surrounding areas. May 1952 saw the fleet double in size with the acquisition of the Midland area of the Eastern National Omnibus Company, encompassing Bedfordshire, north Buckinghamshire, and north Hertfordshire. The National Bus Company split United Counties into three operating companies in 1986, United Counties, Luton & District and MK Citybus, halving the size of the fleet. After being acquired by the Stagecoach Group in 1987, the company was largely left untouched. The main focus of the book looks at the vehicles operated by the company, covering the numerous types operated by United Counties themselves. The various liveries, both fleet and advertising liveries, are also listed.
Using many real-world examples and cases, this book identifies key factors and processes that have contributed to the creation of successful new products, buildings, and innovations, or resulted in some failures. Such factors include the creativity of individuals and groups, their sources of inspiration, the processes of creative design and innovation, and the characteristics of the products, buildings, and innovations themselves. Much has been written about creativity and innovation, but what helps to foster creativity, enable creative ideas to be translated into practical designs, and ensure those new products or buildings succeed as innovations on the market or in use? This book discusses these elements through the author’s origination and analysis of examples and case studies ranging from the revolutionary innovation of the smartphone, through radical innovations in domestic appliances and sustainable housing, to creative designs of contemporary jewellery. The broad range of examples and cases include product and fashion design, filmmaking and fine art, as well as industrial design, engineering, and architecture, offering lessons for creatives, designers, and innovators from many subject backgrounds. Analysis of the different factors, successes, and failures are presented in text boxes throughout the book to allow readers to easily understand the key lessons from each example or case, with numerous colour visuals, diagrams, and charts for illustration. This book is a must-read for a broad audience interested in creativity, design, and innovation, including practitioners in design, engineering, architecture, and product management, and students and instructors of those subjects.
The Transport Committee reports that extensive cuts to rural, evening and weekend bus services are damaging the ability of many people - especially the old, young or disabled - to participate in employment, education or voluntary work and to access vital services such as healthcare and retail facilities. In a review of England's bus services (outside London) after the Spending Review, the Committee warns that even deeper cuts in bus services are likely in 2012-13, as local authorities struggle to deal with budgetary reductions, and calls for the concessionary travel scheme to be preserved so that the elderly and disabled continue to enjoy free bus travel. The Committee also concludes that the concessionary fares scheme was 'discriminatory' because it did not apply to most community transport providers - usually independent charities that provide transport such as dial-a-ride bus services. It calls on the Department for Transport to monitor the extent of service cutbacks made this year and to review service provision again after BSOG (Bus Service Operator Grant) grant cuts take effect in 2012 - 13 so that it can analyse and draw conclusions about the wider costs and benefits of its policy changes to the country as a whole. The Local Government Association should identify and disseminate information about good and bad practice in the delivery of cost effective, flexible services including community transport and/or area-based transport integration. And local authorities and commercial operators must consult more widely where services are being changed
Cities around the world are being wrecked by the ever-increasing burden of traffic. A significant part of the problem is the enduring popularity of the private car - still an attractive and convenient option to many, who turn a blind eye to the environmental and public health impact. Public transport has always seemed to take second place to the car, and yet alternative ways of moving around cities are possible. Measures to improve public transport, as well as initiatives to encourage walking and cycling, have been introduced in many large cities to decrease car use, or at least persuade people to use their cars in different ways. This book explores many of the measures being tried. It takes the best examples from around the world, and illustrates the work of those architects and urban planners who have produced some of the most significant models of "transport architecture" and city planning. The book examines the ways in which new systems are evolving, and how these are being integrated into the urban environment. It suggests a future where it could be mandatory to provide systems of horizontal movement within large-scale development, using the analogy of the lift, upon which every high-rise building depends. In so doing, future cities could evolve without dependence on the private car.