TRAFFIC DENSITY

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24985, 20 September 1946, Page 9

TRAFFIC DENSITY

SEGREGATION OF MOTOR VEHICLES •‘DIVIDED HIGHWAYS'” UNDER CONSIDERATION (From Oui Parliamentary Reporter ■) WELLINGTON, September 19. The provision of “divided highways” on which motor vehicles would be segregated from other forms of traffic has become a matter of necessity in the interests of safety and economic transport, and, to this end, motorways are now being surveyed and designed in localities where the demand is most urgent, said the Minister of Works (the Hon. R. Semple), in the annual Public Works Statement, tabled in the House of Representatives. Mr Semple said that when the war broke out, studies were being made of the problems of route designs near Urban areas where conditions were becoming serious because of congestion and the wide variety of traffic involved. It was recognised that consideration would have to be given to some adaptation of the “divided highway” system used overseas. Where traffic densities were not even as great as on the more important national roads, there must be a segregation of motor vehicles from other forms of traffic. While the all-purpose roads would remain for access to property and for pedestrians, cyclists, stock, and local motor traffic, there should, in some cases, be motorways solely for the use of motor vehicles. These would by-pass towns and traverse the country like railways, with no ribbon development and no access, except at properly-designed junction stations. Mr Semple said that as far as the main highways generally were concerned, extra graders and other machinery had recently become available. It was hoped that by the end of the coming paving season, there would be a considerable improvement in highway surfaces. Much would remain to be done to restore the highways to pre-war standards. Road construction during the last year was on a “very moderate scale,”