MOTOR TRAFFIC AND THE ROADS.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—In reference to the letter from your correspondent, "Watling Street," I know well the very serious inconvenience and the loss of former amenities which have resulted from the immense increase of heavy traffic running on much used roads at high speeds by day and night alike. I have seen cracked walls and ceilings in roadside houses, and heard from " front- agers " that quiet sleep is impossible at night and that any enjoyment of footpaths and roads by day is out of the question. And I know that we are only at the beginning of the road transport era, and that these conditions will grow worse every year. From a recent census I had taken over an average of six days, 188 heavy vehicles passed a given spot on the Holy- head road between midnight and 6 a.m., at the rate of nearly 33 an hour, or over one every two minutes during the night.
It is because I believe that special roads can and should be built for this heavy traffic running at comparatively high speeds that I have brought forward the scheme of the Northern and Western Motorway from Uxbridge to the North. And if such a road were built, the running costs of heavy vehicles would be reduced by about id. a ton mile, and at the same time traffic of the heaviest, noisiest, and most damaging type to existing roads would automatically use the new motorway to the benefit of all concerned.
I maintain that motorways are bound to come, and are the true solution of many of our present road and traffic problems. And the construction of such roads is ideal employ- ment for those out of work, quite apart from the employment given indirectly in many other trades in providing material.-
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