Close your eyes and imagine that you’re writing your dissertation for your doctorate in town planning. Now think of a (purely hypothetical) town which had a population under 3,000 in the mid-sixties.
Then it became a “growth town” and today has a population of around 22,000. Part of a street is a continuation of High Street
J1486 : High Street, Antrim.
Two things happen – there is a ring road about the town centre
J1486 : Subway, Antrim (1),
J1486 : Subway, Antrim (2),
J1486 : Flyover, Antrim and
J1486 : Railway Street, Antrim. There is a shopping centre, just off the main streets with more car parking than the rest of the town combined, anchored by (cough, splutter) Tesco. Then a major new shopping centre opens outside the town
J1488 : Junction One and
J1388 : 'Junction One' shopping centre (close to the motorway). Then Tesco moves out of the old shopping centre and builds a stand-alone 24-hour establishment nearby.
Oh and at the same time that former main street is now a cul-de-sac with enforced parking restrictions and no buses.
Couldn’t happen?? Open your eyes. Taken at 12.53 on a Saturday. Nobody passed in front of the camera and I wasn’t in anybody’s way. Why not? Guess!