The system was, of course, never designed. It is instructive to read a general history of
transport such as that of Dyos and Aldcroft[l969] to see just how pragmatic its development
has been and to follow this up by Plowden[l971] on the motor car and politics and Lewis
Mumford [ 19611 on the city in history for an intelligent, valued perspective on life and the motor
car. It is not possible to understand the context of road traffic accidents without the insights
provided by the painstaking research of Plowden[l971] into all the official commissions of
inquiry into the motor car and the subtle and not so subtle communality of interest between
motor vehicle manufacturers and central government. The same points (in a rather more
aggressive context) have been made by Ralph Nader[l965] and the essential features of the link
between government, motorised transport, and its disbenefits documented once again in
Wardroper [ I98 I]