Unpopular Opinion: Milton Keynes Is Actually Awesome

Milton Keynes is one of the most unusual cities in the UK.
A strict grid of roads, endless roundabouts, separated neighbourhoods — and a layout that looks more like a planned city from the Soviet era than something you’d expect in England.

But is Milton Keynes really the “car city” everyone loves to hate?
Or is it a misunderstood experiment with ideas that actually make sense today?

In this video, we explore the full story of Milton Keynes:
Why it was built, how its unique grid system works, the massive network of paths and green spaces hidden behind the main roads, and what daily life here really feels like.
We also look at public transport, the rail connections, and whether this city’s design might offer lessons for the future.

If you enjoyed the video, feel free to leave a like, subscribe, and tell me which city I should explore next.

And if you want to support the channel and get extra content, you can join me on Patreon — it really helps me make videos like this.

📚 SOURCES USED

General History & Planning
“History of Milton Keynes” — Milton Keynes Council / Local Government Records
“The Plan for Milton Keynes” — Milton Keynes Development Corporation, 1970
“New Towns Act 1965” — UK Government
“Milton Keynes: A New City Comes to Life” — The Open University
Population & Design Intent
Department of the Environment — Original designation documents for Milton Keynes (target population ~250,000)
Milton Keynes Development Corporation — Master Plan Archive

Grid Road System
“Milton Keynes Grid Road System” — MKDC internal planning notes
“The First Grid Roads of Milton Keynes” — Milton Keynes Museum / Local Studies Library
Milton Keynes Council — Transport & Highways Technical Reports
Redways & Pedestrian/Cycling Network
“The Redway Network: Milton Keynes Walking and Cycling Infrastructure” — Milton Keynes Council
The Parks Trust — Green Infrastructure Reports
“Urban Form and Green Space in Milton Keynes” — Landscape Institute Case Studies

Public Transport
“Milton Keynes Bus Strategy” — Milton Keynes Council
Network Rail — West Coast Main Line Operational Overview
East West Rail Company — Project Documentation & Route Strategy Reports
Urban Form & Evaluation
“Living in Milton Keynes: A Study of Urban Form” — The Open University
“Milton Keynes 2050 Strategy” — MK Futures Commission
Centre for Cities — “New Towns and Urban Performance in the UK”

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🏷️ Hashtags
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Music by:
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Stockfootage:
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A strict rectangular grid, long straight roads, roundabouts everywhere, districts laid out like perfect building blocks. When you open Google Earth and zoom into the countryside between London and Birmingham, there’s a high chance you’ll get confused for a second. Is this really the right country? Because this isn’t the messy organic street pattern you would expect in the UK. Instead, it looks more like a Soviet planned city. Something you’d rather find in Eastern Europe. Hey, I’m Danielle and this, my friends, is Milton Kees. For decades, people have loved to hate it. Too carcentric. No, wait. Most car ccentric city in Europe even. No m feeling, too modern, too flat, too spread out. Basically the exact opposite of what you would expect from a British city. But at the same time, it’s surprisingly green. There’s a whole network of paths that let you walk or cycle across the city without ever touching a main road. The neighborhoods are quiet and tucked behind trees. And the rail connections aren’t actually that bad either. So, what is this place really like? A planning mistake, a misunderstood experiment, or maybe, just maybe, something smarter than people give it credit for. In this video, I want to dig into the story behind the strange grid in the middle of England. We look at why it’s shaped the way it does, how daily life works inside this layout, and whether Milton Kees is really as bad as the jokes make it sound, or if it’s a city that deserves a second look. Let’s jump in. Milton Kees didn’t grow the way most British cities did. There was no medieval market square here, no Victorian rail town, no industrial core that slowly expanded over the centuries. Instead, the land the city sits on today was mostly farmland and a handful of small villages. And one of them happens to be named Milton Kees. So the big question is why build a completely new and absolutely massive city here at all? In the decades after World War II, Britain faced a serious problem. London was overcrowded. Housing was in short supply and existing new towns built around the capital weren’t enough anymore. So, the government made a bold decision to create one large modern city that could take in a huge amount of population pressure and test a different idea of M planning. From the very beginning, Milton Kees was designed on a totally different scale. The planners weren’t trying to imitate old English towns. They wanted something that worked for the future. Wide roads, separated neighborhoods, plenty of green space, and the freedom to grow without being squeezed into a historic street pattern. Crucially, the original plans had a target population of around 250,000 people for the city. The result was enormous grid as a city layout. Horizontal and vertical roads forming large square districts, each with its own housing, parks, schools, and local centers. It was meant to be predictable, efficient, and easy to navigate. A place where traffic flows smoothly, where every area feels self-contained, and where daily life doesn’t have to revolve around a single congested center. At the time, this was seen as modern, optimistic, and forwardlooking. an opportunity to build a city without the constraints of the past. But it also set Milton Kees on a very different path than almost any other place in the UK. [Music] Once Milton Kees moved from an idea to an actual plan, the road network became one of its main defining features. Instead of allowing streets to grow in a natural, irregular way, the planners set out a clear structure from the beginning. They wanted a system that would make movement predictable, efficient, and easy to understand. This grid of horizontal and vertical roads was created to move cars quickly and predictably across the whole area. Long straight dual carriageways connect every corner. And at each intersection, you find a roundabout, keeping traffic flowing instead of stopping at lights. It creates a strange mix. On the outside, it feels almost like driving through a modern American suburb or an oversized business park. But once you turn off into a neighborhood, everything suddenly becomes quiet again. The thinking behind this was simple. Avoid the constant bottlenecks you find in older British cities. Instead of funneling thousands of cars into narrow high streets, Milton Keen spreads the traffic across many parallel routes. In practice, it means the city rarely suffers from the kind of congestion you’d expect for its size. Even during peak hours, the grid absorbs the flow surprisingly well. But the same design also comes with trade-offs. Public transport has a harder time competing in a system built so efficiently for cars. Distances between destinations are larger. The main roads sit further from homes, and the scale of movement just feels bigger than the traditional walkable town center people might expect. It’s a layout that makes absolute sense on a map and can feel slightly alien on foot. Still, the grid was core part of the original vision, a clean, modern city where you could move easily without being squeezed by historic streets or unpredictable traffic patterns. Whether you love or hate it, the road network defines Milton Kees more than anything else and it shaped how every part of the city developed afterward. Of course, I can’t cover every single detail about the city in a little over 10 minutes. So, if you have additional information, I would love to read it in the comments. If you only experience Milton Kees from the main roads, you miss one of its most unusual features. Behind the fast grid, there’s a quieter layer of the city, separated from traffic and far more green than most people would expect. This starts with the Red Way network, a system of walking and cycling paths that crosses the entire area. These routes run through parks and neighborhoods, often dipping under the main road through underpasses. In many places, you can travel for kilometers without dealing with busy intersections or traffic lights. Some parts of the network show their age today, but the overall scale is still rare for any European city. Milton Kees was also planned with a large amount of green space built directly into its structure. Treebuilt separate neighborhoods. Linear parks follow old streams and valleys, and former gravel pits have turned into lakes and recreation areas. Even in builtup districts, you’re never far from a park or a stretch of woodland. Once you leave the grid roads, the atmosphere changes noticeably. The noise drops, streets slow down, and neighborhoods feel sheltered behind layers of trees. It’s a different kind of urb environment, more spacious and less intense than in older British towns. Of course, this comes with downsides. Distances can feel large, and without a historic center, the city doesn’t have the same dense street life you find elsewhere. But the combination of green space, separated paths, and calm residential areas is a defining part of Milton Kees, and a big reason why many locals see the city more positively than its reputation suggests. [Music] By now it becomes clear that Milton Kees is a city built on a very specific idea of how people should move. And this is exactly where opinions start to split. For some, the layout feels practical and efficient. For others, it’s the reason the city doesn’t work. And a lot of the debate comes down to one question. How well does public transport fit into a city designed around the car? The truth is, it’s complicated. Milton Kees does have buses and they cover most neighborhoods, but running a strong bus network in a low density car friendly grid is difficult. The roads are wide, the stops often feel far from where people live, and the distances between destinations are simply larger than an older British towns. Without a dense historic center or busy mixeduse streets, there isn’t a natural spine for frequent public transport to form around. As a result, most daily trips are still easier by car, and the city’s design reinforces that choice. Rail is a different story, though. Milton Keen sits on the West Coast mainline, giving it fast trains to London, Birmingham, and the Northwest. And with the Oxford, Cambridge line being rebuilt, the city is becoming an important regional link again. But even strong rail connections don’t fully solve the local problem. Once you arrive here, moving around without the car can feel limited compared to other cities of similar size. Still, focusing only on these weaknesses misses half the picture. For many residents, the way Milton Kees functions today is exactly what makes it appealing. Quiet neighborhoods, easy driving, huge amounts of green space, and the sense of order you rarely find in older towns. The roads work, the grid works, life feels predictable and calm. The city’s challenge now is deciding what to become next. Some argue it should densify at proper mass transit and build a stronger urban center. Others believe its low density green decentralized layout is the whole point. Something worth preserving rather than replacing. Either way, Milton Kees forces you to rethink what a British city can look like. It’s not a medieval town, not a Victorian industrial hub, and not quite a modern suburb either. one that solved some problems remarkably well, created others, and still divides opinions more than 50 years later. Whether you see it as a planning mistake, an underrated model, or something in between, Milton Kees is a place that challenges expectations, and that alone makes it worth a closer look. If you enjoyed this little video about Milton Kees and want to see more cities from this perspective, feel free to leave a like, subscribe, and tell me in the comments which place I should explore next. And if you want to support the channel a bit more, you can also check out my Patreon. It really helps me make more videos like this. Thanks for watching. Have a nice day and bye-bye.