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By A National Roac

)olicy Urgently Needed

Rees Jeffreys

IS not the demand for motor vehicles finally limited by the capacity of the public highways to support them? This question is being asked by an

increasing number of those who are responsible . for the production, sale 'and use of road vehicles. . Is it wise to build fresh factories to manufacture more vehicles if the roads have reached, or nearly reached, the full limit of their traffic-bearing capacity?

Will people buy motor vehicles to travel to the City or Westminster if the average rate of progress inSounty • Loridon be 10 m.p.h.? Will the public travel from London to the South Coast and will tradesmen deliver goods by motor vehicle if traffic delays detract from the pleasure and add largely to the cost of road mechanical transport? England has already the most congested roads in the world. There are more motor vehicles per mile of road in this small and crowded area than in the United States, France, or any other comparable country.

. The limitations on international trade are increasing. The British Government .prefers to finance railways in the Colonies rather than to assist the building of roads. The Government does not encourage the construction of roads in India, China and the Far East, The distant. . outlook for the British motor industry, particularly the commercial-motor section,. is, therefore,' a little uncertain, unless those interested in the development of motoring can bring about some change in the official

Required

transport policy.. ' •

Trading Interests Weak in Influence.

But can road interests bring about such a change? The motor trading interests have no great political influence—they have not learned, as the railway companies have learned, the technique of instructing, guiding and influencing Parliament, public departments, and local authorities. .

As an, expert in public administration, I have ventured many times during the past 30 years to warn motoring interests of the grave risks involved in becoming so immersed in their immediate business of manufacturing, selling and using vehicles as to leave the problem of the roads entirely to the highways authorities. Road_ interests were advised when the Road Fund was instituted that it would have to be watched and protected, or covetous eyes would soon seek to annex

or to divert it. . • . . The motor organizations, divided and, preoccupied, were asleep to this danger, What was the result?. When the . special motor taxes . were instituted" in 1910, they raised a .few millions,. the whole of which, 'together

with the interest on the unspent balances, went to the -• • • _ ,. improvement of existing 'roads and the building of new ES ones. Nowadays £75,000,000, or thereabouts, is paid by motor users in special taxes, over and above the taxes which they pay in common with other citizens.

Of that :e75,000,000, the Exchequer takes nearly 250,000,000 for various purposes, .and, of the remaing

25,000,000, the bulk. goes to relieve the local ratepayers of the cost of their statutory obligation to maintain the roads and carry out reasonable improvements upon them. It would be an exaggeration to place the sum that is spent on the provision of new roads and bridges required by motor traffic at an average of £5,000,000 per annum. Moreover, it is quite conceivs able that, in future, motorists may be called upon to pay more and receive less. If they be not wisely led, the whole burden of maintaining the principal roads. may be thrust upon their shoulders.

Throughout this time the traffic problem has been growing worse. Accidents have increased, 'amenities have been reduced. Road space, by reason of kerbing, ribbon development, and building over private roads, yards and gardens, has been becoming less and less. The public authorities, having failed to provide roads, have attempted . to adapt modern motor traffic to our old-fashioned highways, instead of adapting the roads to motor traffic.

Not a Permanent Cure.

Restrictions, speed limits, examination of drivers and systems of licensing have followed rapidly upon each other. These measures are all costly in time and money. They may appear temporarily to 'alleviate conditions, but they will not effect a permanent cure.

At the moment we have two causes operating seriously to restrict the manufacture, sale and use of motor vehicles. The first is lack of road space, and the second, restrictions and costs imposed by the Government to reduce accidents and to drive the public to use oldfashioned and less-satisfactory means for transport. Motoring is being made more costly and its development checked because the -Government will not provide suitable roads, and the road user, will not take the appropriate steps to induce it to do so.

It will finally dawn upon public opinion that the only way to prevent motor accidents is to provide roads• designed safely to accommodate modern ,traffic The man in the street seems to look upon our road system as a gift of God settled • for all time, much like the South Downs, the Grampians, and the River Severn. He is wrong. There is nothing permanent about our road system. It was built, in the main, by private enterprise to suit the requirements of coach traffic. The GoVernments. of the 18th centuryshied at their responsibility to provide roads for coaches, just as the Governments of the 20th shy at their responsibility to • provide roads for motor traffic. No long-distance road has been built in England for 100 years. Instead, transport money was used for building six great railway tracks from London to the north, and of these the last—the Great Central line—was a. most ill-conceived; unwanted and Wasteful effort. Roads built for horsed coaches averaging 12 m.p.h. and used by a limited number of passengers have now to carry vehicles designed to average 50 m.p.h..for a population which has acquired the travel habit,

Foreign Countries Lead the Way.

We have seen the United States of America, in the short space of ten years, covered with roads of modern design—a stupendous achievement which few people realize and appreciate. We have seen Italy building roads designed and reserved for motor traffic. We know that an impoverished country like Germany is spending huge sums to build modern highways in anticipation of traffic which does not at present exist. But we in this country, in spite of the huge loss of life and traffic delays; have not yet faced up to the problem of building new roads designed for modern motor vehicles of all sizes and speed capabilities.

The Society of .Motor Manufacturers and Traders awakened from a Sleep of • 12years to the necessities of the position, set up a road committee, drew up a memorandum and sent it to the Minister Of Transport, last March. All honour to the Society for this effort. Whether the recommendations that it made were wise or not may be open to question. Whether one of the many motor organizations should attempt to formulate a policy which affects every user of the road, without taking the other organizations into conference, may be seriously doubted.

The reimposition of the petrol tax, Which resulted • from the raging propaganda of a single organization, acting without consultation with the others, should have cured all motor associations of the desire to act independently on large issues. These matters apart, all credit to the Society for its awakening to the importance of the road problem, although its principal recommendation, if adopted, might impose On motorists as heavy a burden as the petrol tax.

Co-ordinated Effort Essential.

By all means let each of the numerous association& appoint its own road committee to study the problem of the highways. But should not the result of their labours be pooled before any policy is made public or sent to the Minister of Transport? Moreover, before agreeing upon a: common road policy, should not the combined motor organizations obtain the best advice available from those who are experts in highways administration?

Having settleda common policy acceptable to mannfaCtrirers;"tradeM-and users of all types of vehicle, it is

necessary .to consider 'how to secure its adoption. It is not •sufficient to send it to the Minister of Transport No Minister can make any radical alteration in the system of building and maintaining roads in the interests of the user, against the naturally conservative instincts of the existing authorities, unfess he knows that he has adequate Parliamentary backing. The average M.P. will not give him that backing unless he knows, in his turn, that he • will gain, and not lose, voters by so doing.

This involves .a knowledge of the technique. of Government, which no motoring organization can be expected to possess. In my subinission, the only body which has this special knowledge in relation to roads is the Roads Improvement Association. It will need to be reorganized for this particular task, and if it cannot be adapted, it should be abandoned and something better put in its place. ' Let there be no mistake about that point.

Future Depends on Unity.

The future of road transport depends on uniting all the bodies in the motor movement in a road policy which-will secure safe highways, free from speed limits, on which the public can travel in comfort, and secondly, setting up machinery, financed and supported by the whole motor movement,, to have. that policy put into operation.

We want new roads of modern design, but this is not to suggest that efforts to improve the existing highways should be slackened. Those efforts will be stimulated by the building of a few model roads for motor traffic.

I motored recently to Eastbourne, to attend the Annual Conference of the Town Planning Institute, on the council of which body I have sat for many years-and which is engaged, at the present moment, in studying the principles that should govern the design and layout of motor roads. 1 travelled by the usual route, through Caterham Valley, East Grinstead, lickfield and Polegate.

The road to Eastbourne, like the roads from London to Brighton, to Worthing and to Southampton, is most unsafe and quite inadequate for traffic of the speed and volume now using it. It is financially most unsound and administratively unwise to seek to adapt these roads to use by modern motor vehicles.

Leave Out-of-date Roads Alone.

Experience gained in this and many other countries convinces me that the best course is to leave congested and narrow roads, except for minor improvements, to pedestrians, cyclists and local traffic, and to build modern highways, safe, spacious and beautiful, for fast long-distance traffic. I would undertake, with the engineering skill now available and with the assistance of the landscape gardener and the town planner, to give roads from London to Eastbourne and other badly served towns, which will be paths of pleasantness, as well as highwaysof safety and speed.

" The construction of suitable roads is in the first rank of national requirements," said the Prince of Wales, when opening the Motor Show. It is for motorists M obey the call of their Prince and to see that such , roads are built