RURAL PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT 97 



can be given from every point of view, including that of the interests 

 of real estate, for such a limitation. 



Bad Roads Costly to Maintain 



In many rural districts and towns in Canada, where the streets 

 have to be 66 feet wide, the only form of construction is the occa- 

 sional levelling of the soil or the dumping down of loads of cinders. 

 The traffic for the most of the year on these streets follows one line 

 and the pavement area might for that purpose be eight or ten feet 

 instead of, say, thirty feet wide. In a case of this kind, the 

 cost of maintenance is probably greater than it would be if the roads 

 were properly constructed at the outset. There is the mud and the 

 damp of the spring and autumn, and the disease-bearing dust of the 

 summer to contend with. There is the lack of convenience for farm- 

 ers and manufacturers in teaming their raw and manufactured ma- 

 terial and to them it is in many cases a matter of serious loss. 



Too Many Roads in Subdivisions 



Residential streets, particularly in rural areas, are not only too 

 wide, but they are too many in number, because of our crowded and 

 shallow sub-divisions and because of the absence of a plan. If land is 

 laid out and the streets planned in an economical way, sufficient saving 

 could be effected, in comparison with the system now in vogue, to 

 pay for the extra land required to double the depths of our subdi- 

 visions in a suburban or rural area. With a more economical plan 

 of development roads would be better made, gardens would be larger, 

 and more recreation space would be available; the result would be 

 that the public would gain in health and reduced cost of living. 

 (Figures 29 and 30.) 



Heavy and Light Roads 



The haphazard system, of allowing factories and residences to 

 be mixed together in rural areas as well as in villages and towns, 

 without any discrimination, also makes it difficult, on the one hand, 

 to get wide main thoroughfares where they are required, and, on the 

 other hand, to secure a higher standard of road construction, giving 

 access to areas that should be reserved for manufacturing purposes. 

 The heavy trucks and waggons which use the streets in industrial areas 

 require heavy roads, but, because we do not reserve special areas for 

 manufacturing and other areas for residential purposes, we have either 

 to make our roads too light for manufacturing purposes or too heavy 

 and expensive for residential purposes. Thus in regard to width, 



