GERMAN MOTOR ROADS

North Canterbury Gazette, Volume 7, Issue 60, 30 November 1937, Page 7

GERMAN MOTOR ROADS

A World Example

NO PEDESTRIANS OR CYCLISTS

ALLOWED

Mr W. Mabane, M.P., who visited Germany with the party of M.P.s and road experts which has been investigating the motor roads there, records his impressions in the “Yorkshire Post.” He writes: “'J’HE new German motor-roads are a stupendous achievement. Whether regarded as a feat of engineering, or in relation to the social and economc life of Germany, or as part of a great strategic concept, they fully deserve that typically German adjective “kolossal. 1 “The roads, when completed—and completion is due in 1941—will provide six main arteries for traffic and will cover, in all, 4,500 miles. Two of the roads will run from North to South, and four from East to West. “These new German motor-roads are not merely bigger and better roads than any at present existing in this country. They are fundamentally different in character. They have much more in common with the railway than with the ordinary highway. Their very essence is that their use is entirely confined to motor traffic. “Pedestrians and cyclists have no place on them at all. Footpaths and cycle-tracks alike are absent. They resemble the railway in that they are free from obstacles, and go beyond it in that the power of the motor-vehicle to deal with gradients is used to avoid direct crossings of all kinds. “They resemble the railway also in that there is no means or right of access from adjoining land on to or across them. The conception, at once simple and grand, is that a motor vehicle may set out from Hamburg and proceed without any need or halt or even to slacken pace, save for fuel replenishment, until it reaches the other end of the motor-road at Bale. “Apart from the absence of all cross traffic certain other conditions are necessary to make this possible. First, all cities, towns, and villages are avoided. Second, there are no serious curves or gradients. Third, all traffic is one-way. “The roads consist of double carriage ways, each some 25ft. wide, separated by a ribbon of grass some 12ft. or 15ft. wide. A black line divides each carriage way for slower traffic and overtaking traffic. “Curves and gradients are avoided by embankments, cuttings, the most remarkable bridges, and, in some cases, by tunnels. Crossings are avoided, and exits to and entrance from towns and villages are provided by the most ingenious methods. “The triangle, the bell-mouth, the four-leaf clover, and rotary, are techcal terms which describe various methods for getting on or getting off the motor roads on to other motor roads or minor roads without interrupting the main flow of the traffic. “In general the effects of all these systems is to lead traffic off one road by means of a gradient and sometimes by means of a complicated series of curves and bridges so that at last it reaches the new road on its correct side, and may gently percolate into the main stream, while the roads themselves cross over or under one another. “Whether it ts possible for us to follow that example is quite another matter. A more detailed examination of the financial, social, and legal methods employed by the Germans will reveal the difficulties that would surround any attempt to construct motorroads of a similar character and on similar scale in this country.”