The Wanganui Chronicle. MONDAY, DECEMBER 28. 1936 ON THE ROAD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 306, 28 December 1936, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle. MONDAY, DECEMBER 28. 1936 ON THE ROAD

"THEBE is a philosophy to bo gained from the road, just as sermons are to be read in stones. The road means communication but it also means transportation. The present generation takes its roads lightly and can hardly understand a stale of affairs when roads did not exist at all. Roads in England were wonderful portions of the system. First came the Anglo-Saxons, whose roads were no made ways but who walked on the top of the downs and ranges to avoid the quagmires. It was the ranges which made the roads in Ancient England just as in the early days of coaching travel in X’ew Zealand the beaches and the ranges provided the tracks. With the coming of the Romans to Britain it became necessary to transport garrison troops from one point to another and therefore the making of such streets as Watling Street was made in almost a straight line. Even the Romford Road through Essex, which is not laid down on a straight line is, nevertheless, a very regular road, without any of those, windings and turnings which characterises the ancient English country lane. These twists and turns in the English lane, are explained by G. K. Chesterton as being the result of someone’s dog having a propensity to bite, and other homely influences. There can be no doubt that the character which is given to a winding and turning road is absent from a straight one. People who are desirous of taking a walk and have the pleasure of a changing scene prefer a winding road with its ever-changing vistas to a noble straight highway. To-day the world is desirous of having its roads straight for speed and crooked for beauty. Some say that this is impossible, but it is not so, for the engineer is not such a soulless creature some would imagine. He has a sense of form, and also of beauty, but he is too frequently denied the opportunity of expressing his aesthetic values. An examination of some of our modern concrete bridges with their delightfully curved arches, their chaste standards, and their harmonious embellishments of lamp posts and such things, evidences what the modern engineer can do when opportunity affords. He will not fail to give the world beautiful highways when the time comes to trust him a little more. But at the moment the engineer is required to give to the modern world what the Romans sought and that is a speedy transportation system. And here again our roads tell an eloquent tale. In the Creevey Papers, for instance, it is recorded that the Knowsley party accomplished 23 miles per hour on a. railway and recorded it as “frightful—impossible to divest yourself of the notion of instant death—it gave ine a. headache which has not left me yet—some damnable thing must come of it. I am glad to have see)) this miracle, hut quite satisfied with my first achievement being my last.” To-day a speed of 120 miles an hour does not cause the average man to register surprise when using the speedy streamline expresses of the Continent of Europe. Twenty-five years ago, thirty miles an hour in motoring was considered excessive, while even ten years ago a road speed of forty-five miles an hour was regarded as a considerable pace. When seventy miles an hour became possible in a modern motorear, questions were again asked about the desirability of such a. speed capacity and the fear of imminent death -was not far removed from those who travelled over sixty miles an hour, but to-day there is every prospect of much higher road speeds being attained with safety. The point to notice in all of this is the accommodating character of human psychology. No matter what the conditions are which are fashioned by the engineer, the human mind seems to be capable of adjusting itself successfully. There appears to be no limit in prospect for the engineer both and as to the development of power and the construction of roads to accommodate high-speed traffic and there appears to be an equal . facility on the part of human machines to bear these changed conditions.