ON THE ROAD PROBLEM. =: 379 
47 motor vehicles went past before one horsed vehicle was seen. In the 
present year the facts are still more extraordinary. An observation was 
taken in the evening at the top of the Haymarket in London, where five 
roads meet, and all the traffic has to pass through a crossing 46 feet 
wide. In one hour there passed 2,499 vehicles. Of these the propor- 
tions were :— 
Power vehicles. Horsed vehicles. 
2,445 54 
A second check-test gave a practically similar result: — @ 
Power vehicles. Horsed vehicles. 
2,245 S15, 
Such figures speak with irresistible eloquence. There are very few 
people now who, like the courtiers of Canute, think that the tide can be 
kept back by word of command. It is overwhelming, and every person 
not blinded by unreasoning prejudice must realise that the old idea, which 
held that the traffic must be controlled by the road is gone forever. The 
traffic must rule the road. Whatever is necessary to enable the traffic 
to be carried on with efficiency must be done. Already vast numbers of 
passengers and vast quantities of goods are being carried by road, and 
the number is increasing and will increase in a degree of which few 
have real perception. The mechanically-propelled vehicle has conquered 
the road for itself once and for all, and the road must be made to carry 
it efficiently, safely, and economically. And in so adapting the road 
to the traffic, the prospect before the community is that it will be a 
mudless, a dustless, and a smooth way, to a great improvement in 
personal comfort, a great saving of expense in power, and great economy 
in the maintenance of vehicles. Further, the value to sound sanitation 
will be almost incalculable. 
What is the road of the future tobe? It is a question which all who 
are associated with the management of roads have come to see calls 
imperatively for an answer. The problem is to find the best mode by 
which a road can be constructed which will not have its surface broken 
by traffic, and will make transit easier both for passengers and goods, 
and shall neither form puddle holes nor exude mud to clog the vehicles 
and to form thick dust when the weather is dry; in short, that there 
shall be no loose material from the road, except the small quantity 
caused by surface wear, which it is found is but trifling when a sound 
crust has been rolled in. That such a road can be laid anyone may see 
by paying a visit to the Thames Embankment, the traffic on which was 
small formerly, the road being shunned as one of the worst in the 
country, but which is now used by an enormous number of vehicles, 
often as many as 1,600 in an hour. It will be seen there that water on 
the surface dries off very quickly, there being no mass of mud to hold 
it, and that in the driest weather there is practically no dust. No 
watering is done during the day, the surface receiving one washing 
during the night because of the horse traffic. But there is no need for 
the use of water carts by day. Even during the long drought of 1911 
there was no watering, yet there was no appreciable dust. 
His Majesty’s Road Board has been appointed, and all the money 
