191-2] on The Road: Past, Prpsont and Future. 337 



The Future. 



What is the road of the future to be ? It is a question which all 

 who are associated with the management of roads have come to see 

 calls imperatively for an answer. The problem is to find the best 

 mode by which a road can be constructed which will not have its 

 surface broken by traffic, and will make transit easier both for pas- 

 sengers and goods, and shall neither form puddle holes nor exude mud 

 to clog the vehicles and to form thick dust when the weather is dry ; 

 in short, that there shall be no loose material from the road, except 

 the small quantity caused by surface wear, which it is found is but 

 trifling when a sound crust has been rolled in. That such a road can 

 be laid anyone may see by paying a visit to the Thames Embankment, 

 the traffic on which was small formerly, the road being shunned as 

 one of the worst in the country, but which is now used by an enor- 

 mous number of vehicles, often as many as 1600 in an hour. It will 

 be seen there that water on the surface dries off very quickly, there 

 being no mass of mud to hold it, and that in the driest weather there 

 is practically no dust. No watering is done during the day, the 

 surface receiving one washing during the night, because of the horse 

 traffic. But there is no need for the use of water carts by day. 

 Even during the long drought of 1911 there was no watering, yet 

 there was no appreciable dust. 



The necessity for the development of road improvement as a matter 

 of national concern is now recognised, and this has led to the establish- 

 ment of the Road Board as a (lovernment Department, to the charge 

 of which the money raised by taxation of motor vehicles and motor 

 fuel is handed over to be administered in aid of road improvement. 

 The motor users are thus made to pay a large tax, over and above 

 their contribution to the ordinary rates for road assessment — the 

 new taxes amounting to a sum approaching a million pounds sterling- 

 yearly — and so to assist in developing mudless and dustless roads, and 

 roads which shall be durable and keep an even surface. It may give 

 an idea of the amount contributed by those who pay the petrol tax, 

 if I mention that the owners of every motor omnibus in London are 

 mulcted in £45 a year by the Exchequer for the petrol used, a sum 

 amounting from London omnibuses alone to £76,500 a year. 



The Board encourages road improvement by giving grants in aid 

 to those road authorities who undertake works of improvement in 

 their districts. The Board have also been conducting, and will con- 

 tinue to conduct, through their engineer and technical advisers experi- 

 ments both in the laboratory and on the road itself. The laboratory 

 experiments are directed to ascertain what are the best materials, to 

 determine the proportions of the different substances found to be 

 suitable to fix the proper thicknesses for the road crusts which have 



