704 REroKT— 1901. 



on well-iuadu roads will compete favourably wiiL, and in many ^^•aJS may be prefer- 

 able to, tramway service. 



It must be remembered tbat the layinii: of tram rails not only blocks ordinary 

 traffic, but in our motit crowded streets it introduces dangers to all wheeled vehicles 

 not on rails, raotor-cars, and cyclists by the skidding of the wheels when they cross 

 the line of rails, and these dangers are daily causing, and are still likely to cause, 

 very serious accidents. 



The increased road and street traffic and the development of new means of 

 road locomotion have made imperative some modification < f our existing system of 

 roadway administration. Cycles, motor-cars, electrical tramcars, have been in- 

 vented and put on roads which are maintained and worked exactly as they were 

 seventy years ago at the commencement of the railway era, when the population 

 of the United Kingdom was half its present figure, and that of the large towns 

 one-tenth of the present figure. During the 1.50 years previous to the railway era 

 the ancient tracks were gradually improved into tolerably efficient roads for coach 

 and wagon traffic, but after the introduction of railways there was a complete 

 cessation of improvement, as for filty years after the railways started tht; old 

 roads were equal to the farmers' and local traffic which the railways left for them ; 

 but for the last twenty years the roads near to the great towns have been inadequate, 

 and now that the cyclist and motor-carist travel over the whole of the roads of the 

 country the neglect of our ancient roadwaj' system is very apparent. 



Although the urban populations have so greatly increased, the old coaching 

 roads are still the only ones that exist ; no main roads parallel to the old ones or 

 alternative to them have ever been made. Towns which are now joined by rail- 

 ways grew out of small rows of houses built facing the main road ; in fact in 

 many cases the road made the town. During the early part of the railway era, 

 when the roads were so little used from coaching falling into disuse, encroach- 

 ments on the roadway took place in and near the towns, such roads being now 

 actually narrower and less suitable for traffic than in the coaching days: so that 

 these towns which owe their existence to these roadways now put every impediment 

 and hindrance to their use by the travelling public. What is needed is that towns 

 situated on our main through roads should provide alternative routes, so that 

 through travellers could, if they desired, avoid the crowded streets of the town. 

 One method of providing such relief roads would be by by-laws providing that all 

 building estates should set aside land for main roads. The buildmg estates which 

 are developed around our great towns never provide a road which can be used as a 

 main line of thoroughfare, although by their very act of building additional houses 

 they cause additional congestion to the main roads. They lay out their roads to 

 obtain quiet for those who live on the estate, and take every possible means to 

 prevent their estate roads from taking a share of the main thoroughfare traffic. 



Parliament must take in hand an improved administration of our high- 

 ways by a comprehensive scheme. Far too many ancient main lines of thorough- 

 fare, already too narrow for the traffic which is on them, are being blocked 

 by having tramways laid on them ; these cause the development of building 

 estates, which throw additional traffic on to these thoroughfares. Apart from the 

 roads themselves, the complicated conditions of street and road traiHc demand 

 careful regulation. Street traffic should be carried as far as possible by lines of 

 vehicles driven as nearly parallel to one another as possible. The rule of the 

 road, as it is called, and which is embodied in an Act of Parliament, 5 and 6 of 

 "William IV., which is commonly called the Highways Act, says that every 

 vehicle is to keep as close as possible to the left, or near side of the road, except 

 when overtaking another vehicle going in the same direction, and then it is to 

 keep to the ofl" side of the overtaken vehicle as closely as possible. As a matter 

 of fact, everybody knows that this rule is habitually neglected by drivers who, 

 whenever they get a chance, drive down the centre of the road, so that others 

 who overtake them dare not do so on the wrong or near side, but must pass out 

 far to the ofi' side of the road, and consequently interfere with the traffic coming 

 in the opposite direction. This neglect of the rule of the road causes a great 

 waste of space immediately behind every vehicle, and is one of the chief causes 



