SWITCH ROADS FOR VILLAGES.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] Sia,—One paragraph in your article on " The Slump and Unemployment" (January 1st) will raise hope in those who live in villages on the great highways in England. You suggest the making of new switch roads to deflect the traffic from the main streets of villages. Such would be an immense boon, for at present the main road is a death-trap, particularly to chil- dren and dogs. The character of the traffic has altered com- pletely. Since the war, and more particularly since the railway strike, the traffic consists of heavy motor-vans, often with trailers, driven frequently by steam and emitting smoke and sparks. These heavy waggons contribute nothing to the trade of the villages they pass through; all they give is noise, dirt, and danger. No one dare leave a child or a dog unattended; outside one is terrified to cross the road, inside one is afraid that the foundations of the house will give way as these 16-ton monsters pound along. Then there is no limit as to hours. By night and day these waggons go on, and Sunday is often as bad as Saturday. Your suggestion of switch roads would solve the problem for villages; but I wonder if a bolder plan would not be wiser. Why not, at this time of unemployment, devise a system of special roads for heavy motor traffic? They could run along the side of the railways, or our neglected canals
could be drained and filled up. Were there a few great com- mercial roads connecting London with the big industrial centres, at once the problem of our existing roads would be solved. They would not need widening or straightening or strengthening, they would be ample for local traffic, and peace and safety would again reign on the hedge-bordered roads of
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