Britain's crowded roads
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• Traffic congestion is now spreading more rapidly in Britain than in any other major country, according to figures published yesterday by the British Road Federation in its 1969 edition of Basic Road Statistics. The book is published by BRF, 26 Manchester Square, London, Wl, price 5s.
There are now over 59.2 vehicles for every mile of road in the UK, compared with 48.3 in Germany and 45.1 in Italy, while the USA and France both have fewer than 26 vehicles to the mile.
The report reveals that 14,446,500 vehicles are in use in Britain,, including 10,816,100 cars. In 1968/9 Britain's road users paid £1,564m in taxes—more than twice as much as they did only five years ago. Motor fuel tax alone amounted to £969m. Road user taxation is also growing rapidly as a proportion of the national revenue; in 10
years it has increased from 10.3 to 11.7 per cent, while Government road spending has now slipped to less than 2.5 per cent of national expenditure.
Exports sales of British vehicles in 1968 reached a record of £526m.
The report shows the continued swing to heavier goods vehicles, those in use exceeding 5 tons unladen having increased from 135,500 to 152,000 between 1967 and 1968. At the other end of the scale, vehicles not exceeding 3 tons unladen have fallen from 1.194.600 to 1,136,000.
A decrease of 2,000 in 8-licensed vehicles was matched by an equivalent increase in A-licensed vehicles, while the number on Clicence fell by 20,000; carriers' licensed goods vehicles totalled 1,474,000 at the end of 1968 compared with 1,521,700 at the end of the previous year.