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Which road users cause congestion? (Clue: it’s not cyclists, not in 1919 and not now)

by carltonreid / on July 19, 2013 / / posted in 1919-1921, Automotive history

From Modern Roads, of 1919, by Henry Percy Boulnois, city surveyor of Exeter and Liverpool, and later a member of the Government’s Road Board in 1909. In the 1920s, Boulnois was chairman of the council of the Roads Improvement Association. This was the first ever organised body to push for the improvement of roads. The highly influential RIA had been founded by cycling organisations, the Cyclists’ Touring Club and the National Cyclists’ Union.

4 thoughts on “Which road users cause congestion? (Clue: it’s not cyclists, not in 1919 and not now)”

Fonant / Reply July 25, 2013 at 8:12 am

Perversely an updated version of this table giving “Passenger Car Equivalent” units (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_car_equivalent) is used to justify spending money on increasing the number of cars on our roads (and not spending money on cycle facilities). In fact, as this much older table shows, this merely increases congestion.
- carltonreid / Reply July 25, 2013 at 8:14 am
  
  Yes, the irony is plain – and painful.
  
  Thanks.
Ann / Reply August 1, 2013 at 6:32 pm

Looking forward to your publication! Is it in press?
- carltonreid / Reply August 1, 2013 at 7:15 pm
  
  Nowhere near!

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The coming of the railways in the 1830s killed off the stage-coach trade; almost all rural roads reverted to low-level local use. Cyclists were the first group in a generation to use roads and were the first to push for high-quality sealed surfaces and were the first to lobby for national funding and leadership for roads. They were also the first promoters of motoring; the first motoring journalists had first been cycling journalists; and there was a transfer of technology from cycling to motoring without which cars as we know them wouldn't exist! Nearly seventy car marques – including Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Chevrolet, Cadillac and GMC – had bicycling beginnings.

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