GROWTH OF TRAFFIC

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 427, 7 May 1937, Page 2

GROWTH OF TRAFFIC

PROBLEM IN BRITAIN Proposals Of Ministry London, April 12. Some idea of the tramendbus growth of traffic in Great Britain during the last few years is given by the statis'ics which Mr. Hore-Belisha, the Minister of Transport, recently quoted in a speech in the House of Commons. These show that for every 100 vehicles licensed in 1931 there are 125 to-day, that 10,000,000,000 journeys are made annually by road compared with 1,700,000,000 by rail, and that the net inilrease in the number of cars on the roads has been at the rate of 400 to 500 every day for the past three years. In his speech, Mil Hore-Belisha censured' the practice of street carparking, which, he declared, not only impeded traffic, but was a source of danger, being responsible for 3700 accidents o'6 of 10,000; the building during recent years of large blocks of fiats in streets originally designed for single houses has made this problem even more acute. Attention is being given to the matter by the local authorities, and proposals for special facilities for street car-parking, to be arranged in collaboration with the Ministry of Transport, are being considered. In the same speech Mr. Hore, BelIsha described the experiment which the Ministry is undertaking in order to relieve traffic congestion by means of alterations to arterial roads. Under this scheme, junctions will be reduced to a minimum and spaced more widely apart; bridges or subways will be laid down for each class of roaduser. A survey of these roads is being made at the present time, and the alterations will be started in April. Mr. Hore-Belisha added that he hoped that every city in Britain wquld follow London’s example in making a survey of its highways jieeds, with a view to similar improvements.