Motor Road Transport For Commercial Purposes
(Liquid Fuel, Steam, Electricity)

APPENDIX I CLASSIFICATION OF HIGHWAYS It is unnecessary to-day to dwell on the importance of road reconstruction. The vast increase in the number of vehicles during late years, and especially during 1920, is obvious to all who travel by road, as is also the faet that not only are the transported loads augmented in tonnage but they are carried at higher rates of speed. Such conditions call urgently for change and progress. The need for the classification of our highways throughout the country is imperative, for without a definite and comprehensive road system we cannot hope to cope with the motor road transport of to-day, let alone that of to-morrow. The road problem is of widespread interest because it affeets everyone either direetly or indireetly, and a short statement of what is proposed by the present Government with regard to classification does not seem to be out of place here. Memorandum on the Classification of Roads Under the provisions of Section 17 of the Ministry of Transport Act, 1919, the Minister may, subject to the approval of the Treasury, make advances out of the moneys provided by Parliament to any authority, company or person, either by way of grant or by way of loan, or partly in one way and partly in another, and upon such terms and conditions as he thinks fit, for the construetion, improvement or maintenance of roads, bridges, or ferries. For the purpose of such advances, the Minister may, after consultation with the Roads Com- mittee appointed under this Act and the local authorities affeeted, classify roads in such. manner as he thinks fit. The Roads Department of the Ministry is at present engaged on the preparation of a scheme for the classification of all roads in Great Britain and Ireland, and it is intended that a complete scheme shall be submitted to the Minister before the end of the present year (1920), in order that advances may be made to highway authorities towards the cost of the maintenance of roads during the financial year commencing lst April, 1921. 203