CHAPTER IV 



Rural Transportation and Distribution. Railways 

 and Highways 



Railways. Planning of railways. Highways. Road improvement in 

 Great Britain. Road construction in Australia. Road improve- 

 ment in the United States. Road improvement in Canada. Eco- 

 nomic and social value of good roads. Principle of financing road 

 improvements. The planning of roads. A concrete illustration 

 of saving due to planning. Planning roads in Australia. The 

 advantages of planning roads in Canada. Planning of road widths. 

 The by-law maximum of width. Effect of narrow roads in Britain. 

 Principle on which roads should be planned. Suburban standards 

 too high. Cost of roads in relation to housing. Roads and air space 

 around buildings. Bad roads costly to maintain. Too many 

 roads in subdivisions. Heavy and light roads. Main arterial 

 thoroughfares. Incidental problems of road planning. 



ONE of the chief objects of planning land is to secure 

 efficiency and convenience for carrying on industry, and in 

 this connection we have to consider the means of com- 

 munication. The means of communication for distributing the 

 resources of a country consist of waterways, railways and highways. 

 These are the arteries through which flow the products of human 

 activity in a constant process of exchange between producer and con- 

 sumer, to supply human needs. 



RAILWAYS 



The development of the railway system in Canada has had a 

 great influence on the geographical distribution of the population 

 and on the opening up of new fields of production. 



Having regard to its population, ^and the length of time it has 

 been undergoing development, Canada is in the forefront of civilized 

 countries as regards its systems of waterways and railways. Admit- 

 ting that there may have been extravagance and misdirected effort, 

 everything that a young country could have done to extend and im- 

 prove these systems has been done. It is charged that there has been un- 

 necessary duplication of railway tracks and services, and over-expendi- 



72 



