20 MAY 1938, Page 6

Sir Charles Bressey's traffic proposals refer, of course, primarily to

London, and London (I speak as a Londoner) has rather a way of thinking itself the only city that matters, but actually what is most interesting in his report is the series of projects applicable to any great city anywhere. We are obstinately reluctant to learn from other countries in this matter of roads. America has had parkways for years ; Germany has her Autobahns and Italy her Auto-. strades—roads confined to fast-moving motor traffic—and New York by roofing in the New York Central railway and building Park Avenue over it, has shown how waste space can be put to effective use. But London can find lessons to learn without looking across the Atlantic. Liverpool's Mersey tunnel is far ahead of anything London can produce in the way of an underground (under-water for those who prefer to be pedantic) thoroughfare. All these expedients— tunnels, viaducts, parkways, autobahns, figure in the Bressey report, but unless the Ministry of Transport and the local authorities concerned act with unusual promptitude and on an ambitious scale the road-system will still lag behind the constantly increasing traffic it is meant to accommodate. * * * *