Good Roads As Economic Assets
Page 30
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COGENT facts concerning the vital importance of improving our road system were given by Mr. C. T. Brunner in his recent lecture before the members of the Town Planning Institute. He referred to roads as being an intrinsic part of the Nation's industrial equipment. They, with the vehicles which use them, form huge conveyor belts which take materials from stage to stage during the long manufacturing process of converting raw materials to finished products and placing them in the hands of the consumer. He emphasized that the most modern plant and machinery in the world cannot compensate industry for an out-ofdate system of transport and communications.
In Britain the economic benefits to be derived from an improved road system could be conservatively estimated at £140m, a year if vehicle operation remains at the 1951 level. This huge sum would be made up from savings in time, fuel, tyres, maintenance and the reduction in cost .of accidents which, apart from human suffering, had cost the country some £60m. a year during the period 1935-38, when about £50m. annually was spent on motor vehicle insurance. Now the operating cost figure to be set against accidents is an estimate of £150m. for insurance, if allowance be made for the risks borne by users themselves.
To-day some 70 per cent. of goods traffic is carried by road and as industry is developing in areas farther away from railway centres, road transport is even more vital, not only for the carriage of goods but for the daily movements of huge numbers of workers. Expenditure on motorvehicle operation in 1951 was estimated at £1,408m.; or about 12.5 per cent. of the national income. A proportion of this was represented by licensing and taxation, but since 1936 there had been no attempt to relate expenditure on roads to the yield from the taxes, and the amount spent on the new construction of -roads or major improvements, was ridiculously small.
Last year Britain spent £1. 9s. on roads per head of population, the figure for the U.S.A. was £10 2s. and even Portugal considered it worthwhile to expend £4 8s. BOtain is one of the few leading countries in Europe which have not improved their road systems since the war, although transport costs form an important part of the price of consumer goods.
Mr. Brunner pointed out that out of the £100m. spent annually by the farming industry in moving its produce, £70m. is accounted for by road transport. Some 13.5 per cent. of total building costs is represented by the operation of road vehicles.
Apart from their economic value, good roads mean fewer accidents, for example, highway development in the U.S.A. had reduced the national accident rate by over 60 per cent., whilst it has been claimed that the German motor roads lowered the percentage by 81