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STRAIGHT OR CROOKED WAYS

1st August 1918, Page 16
1st August 1918
Page 16
Page 16, 1st August 1918 — STRAIGHT OR CROOKED WAYS
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

By "The Inspector." "

IT WOULD BE.a 'sorry day for those of us who have a, soft spot in our hearts for England's pleturesque and tortuous roadways, if some utilitarian roa,d• authority decided to reconstruct our road system with a straightedge and a 'spirit level,' Something may be said -for the forcefulness of dirktin of the Roman method contemning hills and valleys alike. But there is a nerve-racking monotony about the use of them 'just" as -there is on Timmy American. highways and 'those great Stretches of natitirial roads Which are aush a familiar •feature of the countryside on the Continent, and particularly in France and in parts of Germany: If we consider the road i Purely from ail utilitarian point of view, we • Should undoubtedly plumpforthe road which goes straightest to its objective.'But I imagine that such geometrical method: is not necessarily of advantage from a military .pbint of view, although,of course, 'he streets of the Fr-ench capital we-re planned in such as_ way that cannon could, if need be, sweep them from end to end. Such, however, were the reasons advanced by the town -planners of Paris.

I have no more reason for my antagonism to bee-line .highways than that -I should deplore the final banishment of the •picturesque froin'our roadsides much as I deplore the necessary devastation of our woods and forests for -horne-grown war-time timber purposes. I hcipe, the day May be long distant when our curving, twisting roadways in the British Isles will be improved :off the face 'of the land. Let. us do_ all we can to render them safe by the better shaping of cOrners. Let us,' if needs be, reduce troublesome gradients to something within the capacity of the less effective motor vehicles but do not let us be too badly bitten with the mania for straight lines in the, matter of road

direction. . .

* * *. • _,• . . Most of us have wondered how it is that England has •cOrne by Some of its picturesquely-twisting highways and byways, particularly the latter. A very good opportunity to understand the why and wherefore of snch eccentricity presents itself at, the present tithe. Food and other contractors have, at the energetic behest of the Food Production Department, ploughed up acres and acres of fields hitherto left un disturbed, and in doing so, have effectively erased public footpaths of well-established prominence. Those who have-been accustomed to use them, at first a little puzzled, have not long hesitated to strike out anew across carved furrows and newly-raked land.

In all such cases it is not a little interesting to note the extreme vagaries of direction which such new paths have taken.' At first sight one would imagine. that there is little reason why, with old familiar land_ marks in hedgerows, stiles and gates, the new path should not be trodden as straight as the crow flies, but not so ; these new pathfinders appear deliberately to have set to' work to tread as irregularly as possible, and M so doing, have quickly produced tracks in miniature similar-to the picturesque roadways with which we are so familiar in rural England. Many ofour 'highways were initiated in Much the same

manner.

Before :wheeled traffic became common, pack-horses and pedestrians stamped the foundations of the made . roadways which were to follow. It is probably :a most impossible feat to accomplish to walk straight across rough ground, and if any conscious effort be made in this' direction, the result is inevitably a serpentine course. Such early road making, with subsequent deviations to connect up one holding with another and even to avoid obstinately and selfishly ' placed property reserves account largely for our tangled network of roadways in this country.

I do not imagine that the new paths necessitated by Mr. Henry Ford's activities here in these days of food shortage will be allowed to account very much if the Road Board's activities are destined to follow in the same direction. Modern surveyors would take little account of the twistings and turnings of the first blazed trail, but it is interesting to recall how our ancestors' erratia stepping has become perpetuated in the ancient roadways that We know so well, but which many . modern improvers would, without regret straighten out without thought for preserving the amenities 'of our incomparable countryside, .if only they could " get there quicker."

Tags

People: Henry Ford
Locations: Paris

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