ROAD-MAKERS AS POLICYMAKERS T HE efficiency of the modern vehicle has
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outpaced the efficiency of the track on which it runs, and in the proper solution of the transport problem lies much of this country's future prosperity. Highway engineers should take a greater part in bringing these facts before the public, and should have greater responsibility in dedding the road-building policy of the country.
These propositions were made in a paper entitled The Civil Engineer and Road Transportation," read last week by Major H. E. Aldington, C.B., at a meeting of the International Road Federation, under the chairmanship of Sir H. Osborne Mance, president of ihe Institute of Transport.
The speaker said that the absence of the engineer—whose job it was to get things done—from the councils of the nation, was much to be regretted. Highway engineers should take more interest in policy when reporting on road projects, and should point out the economic benefits to be obtained from efficient road transport.
In the discussion that followed, many speakers referred to the attempt by the Government to force traffic off the roads and on to the railways—" forcing goods to unnatural channels," as one speaker put it.
Sir Osborne Mance, summing up, regretted that no satisfactory policy existed for road and rail traffic.