TO IMPROVE TRAFFIC

A roads office will be created shortly

The Public Works Commission has been presented with a bill to create a Roads Office, which will be called upon to give its opinion on the technical and financial programs for work to be carried out on the roads.
In France, the national road network has been severely tested by the war, in many areas, by exceptional traffic, and everywhere else by the complete elimination of maintenance.

The major efforts made by the government and Parliament since 1919 would have made it possible to restore a more or less normal situation, if automobile traffic had not developed with ever-increasing intensity.

Traffic intensity
From the censuses carried out by the administration on the national roads in 1921, it results that the increase in traffic compared to 1913 is: 770 0/0 for goods trucks, 200 0/0 for passenger buses, 44 0/0 for private cars, 35 0/0 for motorcycles and cycles.

The number of declared cars
From 100,000 at the maximum that the number of declared cars reached in 1913, it went to: 231,000 in 1920; 287,000 in 1921; 360,000 in 1922 and 450,000 in 1923. Their number certainly exceeds 500,000 in 1924

It is easy to understand that the methods of road surfaces formerly used can no longer withstand the stresses they must endure. The transformation program developed would entail an expenditure of approximately 1,500 million.

To undertake such a transformation, it is essential that the public works administration knows not only the amount of resources on which it can count, but also their more or less exact distribution by financial year during the duration of the works