92 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



air space; the required air space round buildings can be more cheaply 

 and effectively provided on the lot by means of building regulations. 



At present there are no figures available to enable any estimate 

 to be made of the loss which farmers suffer as a result of the present 

 system so far as purely rural highways are concerned. But it is ap- 

 parent to everyone that there are more highways and more space 

 in the highways than the farming population can construct and main- 

 tain, and that there is incalculable loss due to the want of well-paved 

 roads. It has been shown that the rural system of highways is the 

 basis on which the urban system is developed. The market roads 

 which connect the country with the town usually lead through 

 scattered suburban areas and are often too narrow and badly made. 



Suburban Standards Too High 



Elsewhere attention has been drawn to the great need for better control 

 of the sanitary condition of sub-divided areas in rural districts. It 

 is equally important that the street planning of these areas should 

 be based on sound economic principles. Streets in small towns and 

 suburbs are usually unpaved or too extravagantly paved. There 

 seems to be no adequate appreciation of the necessity for spreading 

 the money spent in local improvements over as much surface as 

 possible, having due regard to the construction being reasonably 

 adequate. We are prone to act in this matter as we do in regard 

 to widths and numbers of roads — we place our standards too high 

 and then, because we find the attainment of that standard too costly, 

 we prefer to do without improvements rather than lower it. We 

 act like a man who is in need of boots and has only five dollars avail- 

 able to purchase them, but who has decided that, unless he can get 

 ten dollar boots, he will continue to use his old ones or go bare- 

 footed. 



In many suburban areas, where asphalt pavements are laid, an 

 ordinary cheap macadam road would serve the purpose better, and 

 concrete sidewalks are an unnecessary extravagance. The majority 

 of residential streets in excess of 40 feet in width represent so much 

 waste land, pavement, sewer and water connections, etc. Every 

 unnecessary foot adds to the cost of sewerage and sewage disposal, 

 water supply, fire prevention, policing, street transportation, and other 

 public services. It is not too extravagant to estimate that most 

 towns and suburbs cover twice the area they need cover under a 

 proper system of development, and increase the burden of taxation 

 accordingly. 



