FIERCE FIGURES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 92, 12 January 1935, Page 22

FIERCE FIGURES

£31,500,00 Motor Taxation

SOME ENGLISH STATISTICS

In 1933 it is estimated that there was one motor vehicle for every 20 pbrsous in Great Britain, and one driving license for every 15 persons. This is one striking feature from the Road Fund Report for the year ending Marell 31, issued last month by tlie English Ministry of Transport. Points from the report are:—

Total payments for the year iuto the Motor Tax account were £31,577,716, compared with £28,702,370 in 1932. Refunds were £859,755. Sum retained by Treasury, £5,200,000. Total paid into Road Fund (after Treasury deduction), £25,755,366. Payments to highway authorities for grant-aided work, etc,, £13,221,455; block grants to local revenues, £6,458,556. Fund’s deficit, £2,084,236, compared with £6,825,233. Total commitments were £20,163,000. From the taxation of road vehicles the gross receipts were £29,201,133. Great Increases. Licenses ■were issued - for 2,282,014 mechanically-propelled and 27,670 horse-drawn vehicles. Compared with 1932 there was an increase of 2.83 per cent, ifi the nunier of mechanically-propelled vehicles, and a decrease of 17.18 per cent, in the second category. During the 13 years, 1921-1933, the number of motor vehicles has grown from 873,700 to 2,282,000, and the Burner of driving licenses from 1.106.000 to 2,947,000. Gross receipts, less rebates and refunds, have increased from £10,042,000 in 1921 to £28,357,000 in 1933. On publie safety the report states: “In various parts of the country highway authorities are drawing up programmes for the provision of footways along important routes, and it is hoped that this particular aspect of the problem of public safety will attract more and more attention. Cost of Road Signals. The total length of public highways in Great Britain, it is stated, is 177,822 miles, of which 152,273 are in England and Wales and 25,549 in Scotland. In Class One 26,663 miles of the main traffic arteries have been included. In 1921 the total length of classified roads was 36,600 miles. The total lengtii of unclassified roads is 134,385 miles. Grants toward the cost of installing and maintaining light signals at road junctions, and other methods of regulating traffic, amounted to £164,441, as against £88,343 in the previous year. Installations numbered 422, of which 88 were fixed cycle signals, 324 vehicleactuated, six manually-operated, and four pedestrian-operated. Brighter Roads. The report, after indicating how the roadside may be beautified by the planting of trees and shrubs, states that in many leases flowering species have been planted as avenues, and, where space and other conditions permit, in groups. Central reservations between double carriage-ways are planted in some places with bulbs or dwarf shrubs, and the ■ islands of roundabouts are frequently dealt with in this way.