UPKEEP OF ROADS.

Franklin Times, 3 January 1923, Page 5

UPKEEP OF ROADS.

DO MOTORISTS PAY FAIR SHARE. Discussing the question as to whether goodjs and passenger vehicles usjng the roads pay their fair share of the' cost of maintenance, “The Commercial Motor” points but that the roads are used by many other (persons and interests besides the motor vehicle. The public has full rights of road user; gas and water companies lay their pipes in the road; the Postmaster-General places his cables and poles in or beside the roads ; local authorities use the roads for the drainage schemes, and, collectively the whole of the community uses them. If one were to allocate to all of these users a correct proportion oif the cost of maintenance, it would be foundl that the license fees paid; in respect of motor vehicles represent a fair contribution to the cost of. the wearl and tear of the road ckust and foundation by the passage of ai heavy motor vehicle, while the operation of the Extraordinary Traffic Clause of the Act of 1878 covers the matter; of damage caused by the passage off loads exceptional in weight and quantity. It must be impressed upon, the public that Che wonderful network of roads in Great Britain (providing a service the importance and( value of which can only be measured if one tiprns one’s gaze across a piece of country and then asks oneself: “How am I to get, across ithare and convey a big load at aj high speed in the absence of any roadway ?”) costs less than three farthings per head per diay of the population, and/ that there is no service of a commensurate value for money. Ask the man who understands hdw his supplies reach him, who wishes to travel from one place to another,, who desires , to travel by ’bus cab, or coactw if he would welcome the abandonment of all the vroadsj, in order /that he should save one-third of a penny a day, and he would regard the questioner as a rhadfcnan, and walk away in disgust !