RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 85 



in respect of such portion of the work as is permanent. The plan- 

 ning of the lines of roads, improving the grades by excavation and 

 filling, acquiring property to improve alignment and grades, and all 

 other permanent work which is part of the system of planning, can 

 be spread over a long period of years without injustice to posterity. 

 Unfortunately, however, it is this class of permanent work which is 

 usually neglected, and the actual construction of temporary work 

 is paid for by money borrowed for a period much longer than the life 

 of the improvement. This is unsound finance and is improper use 

 of the credit of a province or a municipality. 



The Planning of Roads 



Up to this point we have only dealt with the relative importance 

 of the road and the railway, the great improvement being made in 

 the construction of roads, the enormously increasing expenditures 

 being incurred to secure this improvement, and the economic and 

 social value of roads. But good roads cannot be obtained unless 

 they are properly planned, as regards position, alignment, directness 

 and width. This is the question with which this report is chiefly 

 concerned, and it is of primary importance. Planning of roads is 

 essential, not only to obtain good roads, but to obtain them in the 

 right and most convenient places and to make them serve the largest 

 possible number of inhabitants. It stands to reason that the shorter 

 the length of road to construct, the better it can be constructed, if 

 the amount of money available out of the taxes for construction and 

 maintenance is limited. There are too many roads in Canada, because 

 there are more roads than it is possible to make out of the funds likely 

 to be available on the basis of the most liberal estimate of the tax-paying 

 ability of the people. 



Human necessity and the traffic requirements of the whole popu- 

 lation should be the guiding principle in laying out a system of roads, 

 and not merely a rigid adherence to an artificial system of straight 

 lines. Considering the enormous expenditures required to be incur- 

 red to improve roads, their economic and social value, the importance 

 of directness of route, the danger and inconvenience of sharp curves, 

 and the advantage of easy grades, it is an extraordinary fact that the 

 stereotyped rectangular system (which has been fully dealt with in 

 the previous chapter) pays no respect to either of these considerations. 

 The money has to be spent by highway departments which have no 

 voice in their location, for greater lengths of road than are neces- 

 sary. Directness of route is only possible for short Lengths, 

 while sharp corners, collision points, and bad grades are prominent 



