THE EXCESSIVE COST OF ROAD MAINTENANCE.
Page 10
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
A County Surveyor's Suggestion.
-1' OADS and Road Transport" was _LL the title of an able and constructive paper which Mr. Arthur G. Bradshaw, surveyor to the Lindsey (Lincs.). County Council, read on Monday afternoon before the members of the Lincoln Rotary Club at their meeting at the Albion Hotel, under the chairmanship of the president, Rotarian W. T. Bell,
J.P. Great. dissatisfaction existed, he said, as to the cost. of the roads and the incidence of the rating and taxation to meet it. The county was mainly agricultural, but the greatest havoc was wrought by the heavy mechanically propelled vehicles for goods which were not agricultural arid by motorbuses and chars-a-banes.
The advent of the mechanically propelled vehicle had resulted in the carrying out. of great improvements in the main roads of the country. They had been levelled, widened, straightened, strengthened and resurfaced at enormous cost. Given continually increasing road facilities the traffic would continue to increase until it became a serious competitor to the railways. There was, indeed, no limit to its extension and expansion, and the time had come for asking whether some limit should not be put upon the destruction of the roads by heavy traffic of this kind. This, he thought, might reasonably be expected to lead to developments at present lacking. Incidentally, he referred to the question of the nationalization of the roads, and said he thought no sound argument had been, or could be, brought against some form of it far, at any rate, great trunk roads. At present the private motorist seemed to be paying very heavily for the cost of damage to roads which—in comparison—his own car damaged very slightly, and agriculturists for traffic which was not agricultural.
The heavy, solid-tyred commercial vehicle was costing the country a great deal, and the cost would rise with the increase of road-borne goods traffic as well as of motor omnibuses and chars-k-bancs. During the current financial year between 40 and 50 million pounds sterling %Amid be spent on roads, and with all the other demands on taxation that was a large sum, The administrative county of Lindsey had a population of 260,000, mostly rural. There were 630 miles of main roads, and the gross expenditure during the current financial year would be a quarter of a million pounds on main roads alone—not far short of an average of £1 to each member of the population —man, womar and child.
Very little was heard of improving the vehicles which caused the greatest havoc, He thought restrictions might reasonably be expected to lead to the evolution of vehicles of a less destruc: 'Live character, but that would serve the purposes of industry equally. He suggested that alleviation might be found in having the load of commercial vehicles distributed over more axles, in improved systems of suspension, in the introduction of spring platforms, in larger wheals, more flexible springs, the snore universal use of pneumatic tyres, and more definite attempts to reduce the unsprung weight. He was anxious not to be misunderstood. Not for a moment did he suggest that there should be any slackening of the efforts to improve the road system of the country. What he wished to urge was that roadmaking—now one of the greatest industries—was costing the country far too much, and that under present conditions the cost would continue to increase. For the time being the railways had been making up for some of their loss on the carriage of goods formerly sent by rail and now by motor lorry by the carriage of road materials but even already much of this was sent by road. A vote of thanks to Mr. Bradshaw for his paper was proposed by the president, seconded by Rotarian C. W. Pennell, J.P., and carried with acclamation.
We have referred to the matter in our editorial pages, because we feel that Mr. Bradahaw's suggestlpnsare eminently reasonable and practicable. _