25 AUGUST 1939, Page 6

A drive to the borders of Cornwall and back during

the week-end confirmed the conviction which a tour northwards last month impressed on me, that if ever a time comes when money in substantial quantities can be devoted to such needs. one of the most urgent practical reforms called for is whole- sale road reconstruction. It is really a gross scandal that on the great trunk roads west and north there should for the greater part of their length be room for only two lines of traffic, so that a slow-moving car may hold up dozens behind it for miles because there is no room to pass safely. It was my fate on Saturday to travel for some twenty miles in a procession because three or four places in front of me was a car towing a trailer with a rowing-boat on it. It was incap- able of travelling more than thirty miles an hour. With the road—A 31—both narrow and winding, and an almost un- broken stream of traffic coming in the opposite direction, there was no question of passing. Here at least we might learn from Germany. Since I wrote the earlier part of this paragraph, however, a programme of expenditure of £2,000,000 on the Great North Road has been announced. It is mentioned that for two-thirds of its length there is only room for two streams of traffic.

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