alt Hacker NewsTolkien's hatred of automobiles and industrialization permeates all his work, but I'd never read about his specific activism against Oxford's road-building schemes.
The irony is that Oxford now has one of the most restrictive traffic policies in the UK (congestion charging, traffic filters) and it's working quite well. Buses are faster, footfall is up, and the city center is more pleasant.
Cars in dense historic city centers really don't make sense. They take up enormous space for parking, create noise and pollution, and are slower than walking or cycling for most trips within city limits.
Would be interesting to see what Tolkien would think of modern urbanism movements. Feels very aligned with his values.
> Would be interesting to see what Tolkien would think of modern urbanism movements. Feels very aligned with his values.
Still much too dense.
There was a movement, broadly contemporary with Tolkien, that somewhat reflect his views on this topic. The push at end of the late 19th century in the UK to create "garden cities". They were the first modern planned cities. Supposed to be communities of several tens of thousands, fully walkable, with industry and large ugly infrastructure hidden out of sight behind greenbelts.
They wouldn't really be built in that manner until after World War II and by then were much more car-centric.
I anticipate some skepticism on Tolkien's part about the basically progressive nature of the whole scheme. I think Tolkien was skeptical about the basic concept of social progress. His whole generation was. The War sort of ruined any hope of progress. He hated industrialization for a much deeper reason than just the automobile. The influence of the war on his anti-industrial and social views is hard to overstate:
> Here nothing lived, not even the leprous growths that feed on rottenness. The gasping pools were choked with ash and crawling muds, sickly white and grey, as if the mountains had vomited the filth of their entrails upon the lands about,
That is surely from his memory, lifted directly from the Western Front.