NATIONAL MOTORWAYS [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] Sta,—I have
read with interest the article of your motoring correspondent on " National Motorways," in your issue of August 26th.
While I am glad that he is in general support of the scheme for this country, I am surprised to see that he has misinter- preted the recommendations of the German Roads Delegation (1937) to the extent of saying that " no perceptible reduction in the accident rate is remotely probable until the main bulk of commercial traffic is segregated."
As Hon. Secretary of the German Roads Delegation (1937), I am in a position to say that the Delegation never held such a view, and certainly never intended that such a conclusion should be drawn from its report.
Segregation certainly is necessary, but it is the segregation, in the first place, of the different types of road users, e.g., pedestrians, cyclists and motor vehicles, and secondly of streams of traffic flowing in opposite directions, that is advocated by the Delegation and by so many other experts as being the means of reducing the road accidents of the future.
The segregation of motor traffic as such (i.e. motor-cars, ,eittrnercial vehicles and motor-cycles) from the slow-moving traffic such as pedestrians, cyclists and horses is the keyno-e of the modern motorway. The accident rate on the German autobahnen is officially stated to be 83 per cent. less than that on the old road system for an equal amount of traffic.
120 Pall Mall, London, S.W. Y.
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