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The• Economics of Better Highways

18th February 1944
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Page 31, 18th February 1944 — The• Economics of Better Highways
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

An Improved Road System Means Cheaper Transport which, in Its Turn, Has a Direct Bearing -nn the Price

of All Commodities

By , Boyd Bowman

Publicity Officer, British Road Federation NEED is measured by its relation to requirement To study the problem of Britain's use of roads leads, inevitably, to the conclusion that the need for roads in this country has not so far been met, and is not likely to Ire without the employment of new and more determined methods. Many people sincerely believe that we have excellent roads in Great Britain, that there is nothing wrong with them and that we do not need new ones All we need do, they say, is to improve, at certain points, thOse 'we have, when 'everything will be quite all right. Let us,therefore, first considlr the roads we now have.

In 1939 there were 179.800 miles of

roads., It may •be said that this represents a .very, considerable road., mileage for the size of' these islands. Going back to 1899 we find that even then we had 174,000 miles of roads.

Thus, in those itnportant years we • had not increased our road system by more than 5,000 rniles, in spite of all. the changes that had taken place and when we are considering roads in relation to the national need it is these changes which are Of the • first importance.

. The end of ,the last century saw the . development of a new form of transport, made possible by the internalcombustion engine. The motor vehicle arrived. All those of middle age, to-day, have grown up with it and have witnessed one of the most sweepiug revolutions in social, business and national life that has ever taken place in human history.

Roadways Have Not Kept Pace

In addition to the advent of the motor vehicle other factors must be considered which have an important bearing on this question of roads in Britain.

• First of al], the population increased very considerably in those 40 years In 1939 there were over 6,000,000 more people living in this country than in 1899. There had also been a great extension of the use of the pedal cycle, the figure, for 1939, being something' in the order of 10,000,000.'

We must, therefore, take account of these three. enormously important factors—the increase in population and in the number of pedal cycles, and the . introduction of the motor vehicle. New demands for facilities for movement by road were inevitably made, but could the existing road system' meet them?

The only criterion of a good road is whether it can respond to the demands put upon it. The inadequa,cy.of our. present road system has, for years, been imposing a condition of inefficiency upon the whole life of the country, belays' mean higher, costs; congestion means accidents and time wasted, and all the obstructiOns and difficulties' which Eire encountered by those who wish to use the•roads have

gradually accumulated into a crushing burden which has been -.costing this country millions 'of pounds a year

We have tinkered with the problem and have never had the courage to tackle it in aspirit • of boldness and

foresight. The . potential power of modern road transport has been nullified to no inconsiderable extent by the congestion into which those who use the roacIS are fOrced. In London, for instance, it was quicker to move from. Charing Cross to' Oxford Circus, in 1888, than it was to do the journey by

motorcar in 1938. , This is a state of affairs about which little has been done. So long ago as the year 1900, when Mr. Balfour 'was First Lord of the Treasury, he said, in the House of Commons: "I sometimes dream of great highways constructed for rapid motor traffic and confined to motor-traffic.' That was said in 1900, but there is not, in this country to-day, a single mile of public highway constructed for motor traffic and confined to 'motor traffic, i.e. a motorway. • It must be recognized that the 9,rovision of roads for' Great Britain is a national responsibility, as is also the finding of the -money to carry out the project. We must start the' build'lag of a certain number of new roads and put an end to tinkering: we must get down to the job of building motorways.

A Moderate But

Useful Road Plan

In 1939, the , County Surveyors Society produced a plan 'for the con:struction of 1,000 miles of motorways. That represents not much more than half of one per cent, of the total road system of this country but, in this 'small island, 1,000 miles is sufficient to make a very good beginning towards helping the roads to perform what is, in fact, the key job of all transport— the linking up of the ports with the great centres of industry and production.

It is certain that, in the future, we are going to witness an enormous increase in road traffic. Mr. P. J. Noel-Baker, the Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of War Transport,'. has predicted that, within

20 years of the end of the war we should have four.tiMes as many motor vehicles on the -roads of this country •

as compared with, the year before the war. There were 3,000,000 vehicles then, so are we to expect 12,0,00,000

motor vehicles in 20 years' .time? It is not possible to think of that without

realizing that we have to prepare—and prepare now—for the increase, not only in the nuiriber of vehiclia, but in the more intense use which will necessarily be made of the roads.

. It will be of iaterest to suggest a few reasons why motorWays can do so mudh to solve our roads problem The first is that 'Motorways will' stimulate trade, for the provision of faster transport , will greatly aid every industry. It is not so much a question of enabling transport, to move at higher maximumspeeds,,,as of enabling a higher average speed to be maintained, 'because a .motorway is a road

without obstructions.It„.is aroad where 'the point of access from feeder roads are no more numerous than necessary, and where they, enter the motorway without interfering with the flaw of traffic passing over it If we provide industry with such motorways we shall be providing it with one of the finest tools of distribution that we can conceive.

Good Roads an Economic Necessity

It follows that the provision of motorways will reduce the cost of, almost every commodity. The price of everything we consume and use , is influenced, in no small degree, by the cost of road transport. Such motorways mean .economy in vehicle-hours, man-hours, and wear and tear. A quicker turnround is made possible, which thus increases the service that every vehicle can give.

A most important factor, toor is that the provision of motorways will reduce road accidents., In the 10 years before the war there were 68,000 fatal road accidents in Great Britain and, in thesame period, over 2,000,000 people were injured on the roads. We cannot allow that to continue. We cannot afford to lose these lives; or to • suffer these maimed and injured.

It is quite certain that the use of motorways which will relieve congestion on all other roads and which will, themselves, be virtually foolproof in construction, will greatly decrease the total of accidents and raise the safety margin for every individual.

In an investigation of. 100,000 road accidents which the Ministry of Transport undertook, just before the war, 40 per cent, were found to have occurred at road junctions. With motorways, all road junctions will be perfectly safe, because they will be so arranged that there is no possibility Of one line of traffic coming into contact with another passing along the road; but it is not only at these road junctions that there will be a greater degree of safety. By drawing traffic on to the motorways pressure will, at the same time, be relieved on all other roads.

By providing motorways, a process of which much is heard to-day, "the decentralization of our industries will be assisted,. For that purpose we can be certain that the new highways will be of immense value.

In this country, before the war, our roads were more congested than were those of' any country in the world. Congestion was strangling movement because the bulk of the yehicles were using a relatively small portion of our road mileage and, whilst the number of motor vehicles alone was 15 per mile of the total road system,. it was actually, far greater than that on. the roads which were most in use.

It must be made possible for, us to move about more rapidly to-day than '50 years ago. The first means for doing' this is to build motorways which can take much of the traffic where it wants to go. without the need for crowding those highways on which it should have no reason to travel It has been said that we, do not want to spoil this country by building a great many newroads. Motorways are a. means, not for destroying, but for preserving the country. , The beauties of rural England will be far better preserved by the careful designing of a few miles of motorways, which can be made to marry the landscape—by. roads which can be so designed as to' create the minimum interference with the existing beauty. • Such 'roads are far less destructive than are large:scale

widening, or improvements of the existing highways.

We are looking forward to the time; after the war, when a great many people from overseas will visit . this country, and we are looking forward, too, to the time when our own people will wish again to travel and to spend their holidays seeing other parts of their own land. For these purposes, also, motorways will be of the greatest value, for they will open up new vistas for travellers.

Whatever_the demerits of the motor vehicle may be, we Must not only use it, hut we must expect to use it far more in the future. Do not let us allow prejudice, . ignorance and self-interest to pre-Vent us from using it more wisely and more efficiently to make this a better and more prosperous country.


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