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British Roads Policy
Our Contributor Shows that Much Harm Has Been Done to Road-transport Progress by the Perpetuation of a Repressive Approach to the Problem of Highways Development
By Colin Campbell, M.Sc., A.M.I.A.E,
FOR more than 500 years a spirit of repression has dominated the road policy of the country's law-makers. The heavy haulier of 1942 often thinks the restrictions on axle weights, width, and speed could not have been more devilishly designed, even by his worst enemies. Let us examine, therefore,the position of his predecessors.
In the 15th century England had such impossible roads that the passage of wheeled traffic was forbidden through many towns. " Shodde " carts, i.e., carts shod with iron hoops, were not, except upon " reasonable causes," allowed in London. James I prohibited the use of any wain, cart, or carriage with more than four wheels, containing more than a ton, or drawn by more than four horses.
By the middle of the 18th century, English law regulated the way in which horses were to be harnessed, the height, width and shape of cart wheels, the kind and number of axles, and innumerable other technicalities. Before the end of the century the whole country was divided by the relative claims of " The Broad Wheelers' and "The Narrow Wheelers. '
Realizing that existing road surfaces were easily eroded by narrow wheels, Parliament decreed that the toll paid by road vehicles should vary inversely as the width of the wheels. Vehicles with wheels 16 ins, wide were declared absolutely toll free for one year and thereafter were to pay only half the tolls for a vehicle with 6-in, wide wheels.
Subsidized Broad Wheel Not Favoured The 18th century carter, with characteristic shrewdness, refused to adopt the Government-subsidized broad wheel. The added friction and increased weight of wide wheels raised the number of horses required to pull a given load. Consequently, wagon proprietors disliked the broad wheel, but they could not afford to ignore it. They fitted wide wheels to avoid the tolls, but they bevelled the edges, or raised the inner or outer portion of the periphery, or built-up the inner edge higher than the outer. They even studded the whole tyre with roundheaded nails to reduce the contacting surface and to obtain the advantage of lower resistance afforded by the narrow wheel.
Unable to 'protect the country's highways from decay by Statute labour and countless restrictions, Parliament made another experiment. Powers were granted to local authorities to,collect tolls from read users to help maintain the roads in good repair. The system spread rapidly, and by 1770 there were more than 500 toll roads in the country. All classes of the public took strong exception to the increase in the cost of travel produced by the turnpike system.. At the beginning of the past century the average toll per mile for a coach drawn by four horses was 3id. Between Saltford and Bath, a distance of five miles, a four-horsed wagon was charged 4s. 3d.
*Although masked by public resentment at the time, much good camp out of the system. The turnpike trusts improved many road surfaces, widened and straightened highways, and reduced steep gradients. Hundreds of dangerous bends were removed.
Public Clamour Kills the Toll Road Public dissension, culminating in widespread riots, heralded the death of the toll road. The death,. blow was given by the inauguration of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway in I 830.
Then, 10 years after the start of railroad building on a large scale the old coaching roads were deserted. Large numbers of wayside inns were " sold up." Whole villages were rendered virtually bankrupt. For more than 30 years no new roads were made and repairs to existing roads, even to main arteries, were so meagre that road travel became as hazardous as it had been 100 years before.
The advent of the automobile brought new problems for our legislators. The safety bicycle with two associations (the C.T.C. and the N.C.U.) looking after the interests of its users, had pricked local authorities into making small road improvements. Such roads as that between Tarleton and Southport, with a surface of " petrified kidneys," were remade, but on the whole the cycle had little influence on our highways system. The real work was left to the motor vehicle.
Once more, in the history of the road, the legislature had to decide between adapting the traffic to the roads or the roads to the traffic and again it blundered by choosing the former. The problem of dust, .first investigated in the early cycling days, remained unsolved and great discomfort was suffered by early motorists. Hundreds of roadside market gardeners were ruined.
In many places, roads, which had not been designed for heavy traffic, subsided, culverts collapsed, and old bridges became unsafe. Many villages on main highways learned to resent the intrusion of the commercial vehicle. Narrow streets became death-traps for villagers untrained in the art of traffic dodging. Roadside cottages depreciated badly, with cracked ceilings and split walls. Great annoyance was caused by the unaccustomed noise of night traffic and one can hardly feel surprised at the wave of resentment produced by the spread of heavy motor traffic.
The same shortsighted policy as that adopted by Charles II to restrict wheeled traffic on the founderous roads of his kingdom is apparent in the modern speed limit, the restrictions on width and axle weights and the high taxes paid on the heavier classes of motor vehicle. Admittedly, our roads policy has not been one of restriction only. Many fine new roads have been made in Great Britain during the past 20 years, many old ones have been widened, and thousands of miles of *road surfaces have been improved to cope with modern conditions. On the whole, however, the Ministry of Transport has shirked the problem.
Segregation of Traffic as a Palliative An alleviation of the present congestion could he made by careful segregation of the different classes of vehicle. The juxta-position of horsedcarts, tramcars, cycles, lorries, cars, motorcycles and pedestrians in our main city thoroughfares wastes hundreds of pounds every day through needless delays. It is unfortunate that the cycling associations object to cycle tracks. Perhaps, when a future Minister of Transport insists on traffic segregation to the extent of three or four separate lanes, cyclists will accept the inevitable.
Probably, the transport congestion of immediate pre-war years is not entirely the fault of the Ministry. A true democratic government only reflects the people's views and there appears to be a general apathy amongst the non-motoring public. Money will continue to be refused for roadmaking until the public realizes that it is the loser when transport is expensive, and that the ultimate gainer from an adequate road system is the citizen.