RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 75 



The important questions of planning railway extensions, con- 

 solidating railway tracks and terminals, and laying out railway yards 

 and stations in urban areas will be dealt with in the urban report. 

 But there is one aspect of these questions which affects small towns 

 and rural areas, to which attention may be drawn here. Rural 

 municipalities and railway companies require to co-operate to a greater 

 extent in regard to the lay-out and surroundings of country and sub- 

 urban stations. In many cases municipalities have permitted land 

 to be developed in such a way that dangerous crossings are created 

 over railway tracks; these have to be succeeded in course of time by 

 bridges or subways constructed at great cost by the municipalities 

 and railway companies. Sites for elevators and other buildings are 

 selected without proper consideration of the ultimate effects on sur- 

 rounding development. Railway companies often develop their 

 own land around stations, with complete disregard of the public 

 interests, of their own future extensions, and of the expenses and 

 inefficiency which is bound to result to all parties in course of time. 



The initiation of a proper scheme of development should rest with 

 the local authority, but that authority should have the power to bring 

 the railway company into co-operation in preparing a scheme. Care- 

 ful consideration should be given in any plan to the prospective de- 

 velopment around the railway stations and yards, to the need for 

 adequate and fitting approaches to the station, and to desirability 

 of avoiding extravagant and unnecessary crossings. As a result of 

 careless development and speculation many small towns and vil- 

 lages spread themselves on both sides of a railway line, with conse- 

 quent danger to life and a burden of expense which is an entire waste, 

 since no object is served by the scattered and severed nature of the 

 development. 



To get cheaper transportation, farmers must be able to unite 

 in making their demands on the railway companies for reduced tariff 

 and better services, and must simultaneously be prepared to supply 

 the railways with paying loads. But to achieve these ends farmers 

 must have the means and facilities to enable them to co-operate, 

 and a good roads system is one of the most urgent needs in that con- 

 nection. 



Highways 



Because of bad roads, the cost of taking produce from the farm 

 to the railway is often greatly in excess of the cost of shipment over 

 the railway. It is asserted that the traffic at country stations in 

 parts of the United States falls off by about fifty per cent during 

 the season when roads are bad. 



