What are Road Works Worth?
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Mountains of Words, Molehills of Action, in British Road Development Since the War
IN a highly industrialized and densely populated country such as Britain, it was more important to have efficiency in road transport than in any other means, yet our highways lagged behind in many respects. The Minister of Transport had given hope in that some new roads were being built: it was trusted that these were being based on the latest knowledge of science and engineering, and not simply according to designs considered .modern when road-building stopped many years ago.
This was stated in the Henry Spurrier Memorial •Lecture, "Man Must Measure," delivered by Sir Charles Goodeve, director, the British Iron and Steel Research Association, to the Institute of Transport in London on Monday.
Preparation of Plans ' The last years of the war had seen the preparation of development plans for the cities of this country, and in these schemes the -vital part of transport was at least partly recognized. Since then there had been mountains of words, but molehills of action.
Sir Charles said that the science of operational research was particularly applicable to road and other forms of transport. The more highly developed a community, the more sensitive it became to disturbances. Man must Measure the movements of people, their productivities and efficiencies, and the spending of the money under their control.
One of the most dangerous practices was to make false deductions from measurements. An example was the use by most people of prices as a measure of inflation. Higher prices were a consequence of inflation and had only a small secondary effect upon it.
Tribute Due
Measurement could help the study of traffic intersections. Tribute was due to the Road Research Laboratory and others in the Ministry of Transport and police for the work that hid been done in acquiring basic knowledge on which to design an intersection and its control system to minimize delays and accidents.
Much was known about the behaviour of pedestrians and how it could be influenced. For example, it was known that they were forever balancing the risk of action against the delay of waiting for the next safe light period.
Road-work costs were made up of two components, the cost of property and the cost of constructional work itself, and both of these were higher at intersections. The nation was today extremely short of manpower, and any extra demand for labour had an inflationary effect which the Government were doing their best to oppose.
The conversion of a property to a use with a higher value to the community 4-'10
had a deflationary effect and was to be encouraged. Road constructional resources should be concentrated on sites where the gain was greatest and where the traffic was thickest, and the akkolute value of the land should be ignored so long as its value to the community was increased.
It was far too common for the lanes provided by highway authorities near intersections to be used for purposes such as parking and vehicle unloading, with a consequent heavy cost to the community.
One of the most encouraging aspects of the British road traffic picture was the acceptance, however belated, of grade separation, even if only on a meagre scale.. We were still in the position of being the only industrialized country with no fly-over junctions.
Grade Separation Valuable
Part of Sir Charles's encouragement was derived from a remark heard in Germany to the effect that the value of grade separation had not been widely appreciated there until after the first few fly-overs or under-passes were built some 20 years ago. It was hoped that the same conversion would occur here.
Work by the Road Research Laboratory had shown that people paid insufficient attention to safety and would use subways or overways only if they were quicker than the level way. It seemed after consideration that subways were preferable, and as this country had in London the world's finest underground railways. discharging in congested areas at subway level, the first condition for subways had already been met.
The new Oxford Circus station to be built in association with the new Victoria Line would provide an ideal opportunity for an Oxford Street subway arcade connecting all the principal shops and the underground stations at one level.
One of the main .questions that needed to be answered was how to assess the value of investment in new roads and improvements to compare them with investments in other directions. It would also be useful to know the factors which affected the decisions of transport users. To tackle these questions it was necessary to set up a model or fundamental picture of a transport system, if only to show up the things that needed to be measured.
Civilization consisted of meetings between members of the community for various purposes, and indeed its level could be measured by them. If a purpose of transport was sought it could be said to be the raising of the
standard of living from specialization. through knowledge and meetings.
Sir Charles went on to develop his theme in which the output value of meetings was weighed against theit cost. A road improvement in an urban area was many times more useful than one in a rural area because the flow of • individuals over the urban road was many times greater. Urban areas existed solely to facilitate meetings, and the use that could be made of roads imuch areas was greater than in others
Inefficiencies Disclosed
In many cases where operational research had disclosed inefficiencies, these were attributable to a failure of management to relate a personal to a total cost. This was found in the world of transport. One example was the provision of free parking space in valuable roads at great cost .to everyone except the man who parked.
Another was the way in which road or public-utility repairs were èarried out at the lowest cost' to the authority concerned, with scant regard for the accumulative cost to road users. A quick return would be made by the shifting of Covent Garden market to a new and more suitable site to remove an obstacle between the Cities of London and Westminster.
The policy in recent years of allocating most of the limited road funds to maintenance instead of improving efficiency was largely because of the scarcity of people studying the science of transport. The mistakes of the highway engineer might be no more common than those of any other class of engineer, but they were certainly more obvious.
Beginnings of Research
There were the beginnings of operational research into road traffic, or traffic engineering as it was sometimes called, in three Universities—Durham (King's College, Newcastle), Birmingham and London (University College). Three schools were probably sufficient, but each needed much more support.
Primarily, the need was for more students, and these would come forward when the advantage of traffic engineering knowledge became more widely recognized. The other need was for money for scholarships and for special observational equipment.
Associations representing road users in Britain had in this deficiency an excellent opportunity of helping their members in an imaginative way. Only a small part of their financial resources would supply the need, and this, together with the passing over of some of their experience and knowledge, would give much-needed support to an important development. Such action would not only be of service to road users, but would bring credit to the associations concerned.