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Inflation bites at road users
Page 5
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IN 1973 diesel fuel was just 36; a gallon. By the end of 1974 it 56p a gallon, then 8613 in 197'1 and 120p by the middle of 1979.
This is one of the more unpleasant facts revealed in a British Road Federation booklet called Basic Road Statistics 1979 which contains facts and figures covering all aspects of roads and their traffic.
For instance, there are now well over 1.7m goods vehicles in the UK, of which 1.15m are 1.5 tons or below in unladen weight. In 1978 light vans and goods vehicles covered 27.3 thousand million vehicle miles; buses and coaches covered another 2.3 thousand million while cars and taxis covered 136 thousand million miles.
Still on the subject of mileage, the average goods vehicle covered 15,500 miles in 1978 which was a 1,000 mile increase on the average for 1970. The average bus and coach annual mileage was 30,500 — exactly the same as 1970.
That rocketing cost of diesel did not reduce the consumption, in 1965 3.8m tons of diesel was used but this had climbed to nearer 5.8m tons last year.
Britain's road network is also examined in the booklet and does not compare too favourably with other European countries. We have just 1,423 miles of motorway while West Germany, which has only a slightly larger surface area has almost three times this figure.
Similarly, Britain's road building record is less than admirable. At 1975 prices, road construction work in progress in 1978 was only about half that of 1973.
Basic Road Statistics is published by the British Roads Federation, 388-396 Oxford Street, London WIN 9HE and costs £2.50.