There is a neo-puritan strain running through parts of modern society which urges us to live more simply. Looking longingly back to easier and quieter times, it urges us to learn to do without the motor car and the conveniences it brings. This view is sometimes expressed as an aversion not onlyto automobiles, but to economic growth itself. It sees modern technology as the source of insuperable problems, and urges us to dismount the tiger which we have by the tail.

This report derives from the alternative view that the problems derive not from surfeit of modern technology, but a deficiency of it. It seeks to explore how a more advanced technology of a lower level. It endeavours to apply the problem-solving techniques of public policy in order to accelerate the development of a technology which brings answers instead of problems.

The solution looked for is not one which seeks to banish the automobile, but one which seeks to tame it, to humanize it, to make it an acceptable companion of our cities.

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