OVERHEAD HIGHWAYS

Shannon News, 21 August 1928, Page 4

OVERHEAD HIGHWAYS

GLIMPSES ®F THE FUTURE.

During 1927 there were 800,000 motor vehicles within the Londjon area, and during, 1928 it is predicted this number will be increased to 1,000,000. Lieut. Colonel J. T, C. Moore Brabazon, M P., formerly Parliamentary Secretory to» the Ministry of Transport, in London,, recently made some interesting observations about London’s traffic problems. He said: “In Great Britain we have 4 roughly one motor vehicle for every 36 persons. America has- one for every five persons, and still, the motor boom continues unchecked. In America there arc 40 motors per mile of road —not reckoning dust tracks. In Great Britain there are only II per mile. Imagine the day when there are 2,000,000 vehicles normally in the London area. If it entered London to-day such a mass of transport would form an almost solid block in our busier streets. London’s population has increased by about 23 per cent, in the last 25 years. By the time we are imagining it will have in creased by say, another 2,000,000. Hundreds of thousands more people will be thronging the pavements and crossing the roads on foot.’’ The remedy, suggested in some quarters, of driving new roads through the heart of London to form a convenient network may be at once ruled out, according to this traffic authority, who tells us that even -to widen London ,'s principal streets would drain the Road Fund many times over. £12,000,000 for One Road. “Compared with this figure of £35, 000,000, it has been calculated that £12,000,000 would cover the cost of constructing an overhead .road at the back of the minor streets north of Ox ford street. And here seems to be a ray of light in the darkness. If the conditions are wmll-nigh impossible of solution on the ground, why not make use of another dimension 1 Overhead roads and tracks-are not a new idea. Many of London’s suburban railways are raised over long stretches. New York has built high tracks for electric ears. High-level roads have been sug gestod in London as approaches to high-level bridges oyer the Thames. Yet as far as I know, no suggestions have been made ,to build overhead roads on a grand scale. “There is one obvious position for 'high-level roads —above the existing suburban railway lines. Here are sites already cleared and free from the host of difficulties which would have to be overcome in laying roads over the tops of houses. If motor vehicles could be driven from. outside London along broad tracks laid above the railway lines as far as the terminal, where there would be parking places under the control of the railway companies, it would at least ease some of the congestion. The fleet of omnibuses which will serve the rush-hour traffic of tomorrow would have convenient highways between Central London and the suburbs. Trespassing on the Air. “The obstacles in the way of laying roads over the tops of London’s buildings are very great, but perhaps not insurmountable. By, law a man owns the space virtually above his property. It would be impossible, as the law stands, to build a road over a man’s house without paying him for the privilege. There would also be senous difficulties about noise and the exclusion of light, and from the constructional point of view there would be the problem of finding room for the gigantic supports on which the overhead, road would rest.

“High-level roads running at right angles to surface roads would solve most effectively the hideous problem of street intersection. It is hard to see how any method but a difference m road-level can solve it. Removing the tramway line and making circuses will palliate the evils, but so long as we have two large volumes of traffic crossing at the same level we are bound to have congestion, if not chaos.” Curiously enough, in predicting the possibilities of the future, LieutenantColonel Moore Brabazon makes no reference to the prospect of overland pathways and bridges for pedestrians