Colin Buchanan (town planner) facts for kids

Sir Colin Douglas Buchanan (born August 22, 1907 – died December 6, 2001) was an important Scottish town planner. He became very well known in Britain for his ideas about how to manage traffic. In 1963, he published a famous report called Traffic in Towns. This report looked at the big problems caused by more and more cars on the roads in the UK.

Early Life and Education

Colin Buchanan was born in 1907 in Simla, India. His family had many civil engineers from Scotland. He went to Berkhamsted School in England. Later, he studied engineering at Imperial College, London.

His first job was building bridges and roads in Sudan. When he came back to the UK, he worked on planning for different regions. He also joined the Royal Town Planning Institute. In 1935, he started working for the Ministry of Transport. There, he helped plan major roads and worked on making roads safer.

War Service and Government Work

During World War II, Colin Buchanan served in the Royal Engineers. He became a lieutenant-colonel. After the war, he joined the new Ministry of Town and Country Planning. In this role, he helped plan how to improve old housing areas. He also worked on making sure that traffic, town planning, and protecting the environment all worked together.

The Buchanan Report: Traffic in Towns

In 1960, the Minister of Transport, Ernest Marples, asked Colin Buchanan to lead a special team. Their job was to figure out how British towns could handle the huge increase in cars. People expected the number of cars in the UK to grow four times bigger in the next few decades.

Key Ideas for Urban Planning

In 1963, Buchanan's team released their important report. It was called the Buchanan Report. It gave planners ideas on how to deal with more cars in cities. Some of these ideas included:

• Controlling Traffic: Finding ways to manage where cars could go.
• Separating Traffic: Keeping cars away from people and important areas.
• New Roads: Building special roads for cars to move around towns.
• Quiet Zones: Creating areas where traffic was limited or not allowed.

These ideas helped shape how towns and cities were built in the UK for many years. In 1964, a shorter version of the report was published as a book called Traffic in Towns.

Later Career and Achievements

After leaving the Ministry in 1963, Colin Buchanan became a professor at Imperial College London. He held a new position focused on transport. He also started his own successful company, Colin Buchanan and Partners. This company grew to have about 300 staff.

Protecting the Countryside

From 1973 to 1975, Buchanan led a new school at Bristol University. This school focused on advanced urban studies.

He also worked on a commission (a special group) to decide where to build London's third airport. This was called the "Roskill Commission". The commission suggested building the airport in Cublington, a countryside area. However, Colin Buchanan strongly disagreed. He believed it was very important to protect the open countryside around London. He suggested a different location called Maplin Sands instead.

Even though an Act of Parliament was passed to build the airport at Maplin Sands, the plans were stopped. This happened after the 1973 oil crisis. Instead, Stansted Airport was expanded.

Awards and Recognition

From 1980 to 1985, Colin Buchanan was the President of the Council for the Protection of Rural England. This group works to protect the English countryside. He was also President of the Royal Town Planning Institute, which gave him a special Gold Medal.

Colin Buchanan was given the CBE award in 1964. In 1972, he was made a knight, which meant he could use the title "Sir."

Sir Colin Douglas Buchanan passed away at his home in Oxford on December 6, 2001.