In the 1970s and 80s, when it was possible to envisage curbing car use in favour of integrated public transport in Britain’s towns and cities, my father, Rob Lane, who has died aged 84, was a leading exponent of prioritising public services and pedestrian safety over the car.
As a lecturer in transportation studies at the Polytechnic of Central London in the 1960s he wrote Analytical Transport Planning with two colleagues – for many years this was the key text for those studying the subject. By the time the book was published in 1971, Rob had been appointed chief traffic and communications engineer for the London Borough of Camden, where he helped introduce bus lanes and promoted the Green Cross Code.
