Ministry Submits Its Road Costs To Geddes
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THE average cost of motorway con struction is £700,000 per mile. If constructed for light vehicles only a saving of l71 percent—around £124,000— could be achieved, say the highways engineering experts of the Ministry of Transport in the Ministry's evidence to the Geddes Committee on carriers' licensing. This estimate is in sharp contrast to the increment of £500,000 due to heavy traffic claimed in the study of the relative true "system " costs recently published by the British Railways Board. These comments are contained in a study of road costs and their allocation to different categories of users made by the Ministry of Transport and submitted to the Geddes Committee. The study •has been concerned only with the question of measurement of road costs and their allocation between different categories of vehicles. It is emphasized that it is extremely difficult to decide which costs should be brought to account and as to the method that should be adopted in determining the costs Any allocations therefore necessarily involve a number of assumptions which to some extent must be arbitrary. Where one single basis of cost allocation is not obviously the best, the Ministry has identified at least the two limiting bases between which it believes that the truth lies and has calculated for the alternatives. A single year has been chosen and all calculations have been related to it. In practice 1962 was chosen as the most recent year for which statistics on road expenditure and vehicle traffic are avail able. The costs of the road system in its entirety have been defined and measured, whilst in computing capital costs two different methods have been used. The resulting costs have been allocated amongst the categories of vehicles which available information made it possible to distinguish. In assessing total costs of the road system, the Ministry has included the following items: capital costs; costs of maintaining and repairing the roads and providing signs, signals and road marking; costs of cleansing and snow clearance; costs of lighting; costs of accidents not covered by insurance; costs of policing and traffic control; and costs of highway administration. Throughout this study the Ministry hss been concerned with expenditure by all public authorities, including local authorities as well as central government.
Doubt is expressed as to the validity of the A.A.S.H.O. experiment in relation to British conditions.
Table 10 included in the evidence details the total road costs allocated to categories of vehicles on bases producing a less favourable picture for the heavy vehicle. Of a total expenditure of £348m. the total allocated to the seven groups of goods vehicles is £143m., whilst £22.5m. is estimated for buses and coaches. Based on calculations more favourable to heavier vehicles, the following results are obtained. Whilst the total remains at £348m. the amount allocated to goods vehicles is now reduced to £131m. and the figure for buses and coaches is reduced to £20m,