Institutions and planning: the Motorway/Freeway controvers y in Boston, Toronto and London

Abstract

The Motorway/Freeway controversy is particularly intense in Boston, Toronto and London. The differences and similarities as between these three cases is explained in this article. The institutional point of view, the make up and influence of the participating bodies and their channels of action, a study of such solutions as have thrown up, all these, once analized, make for an understanding of the course of the controversy in each case and this, in its turn, leads to the formulating ofa methodology for transport planning that would take into account the great number of protagonists, both institutions and individuals, along with themes and interrelations affected by such a process. Given that the protagonists in each of the cases in question see the problem in terms not only of their own interests but of their own notions of the city itself and judge both policies and projects in the light of these, the controvers y in each case in rich in the differing characteristics and peculiarities of each of the cities here studied. The results of these three controversies will have a great influence in all further planning processes and has turned up many interesting features and considerations that urban planners would do well to always hear in mind.