Déjà Vu
by Peter Henshaw

Rarely is a horse to be seen, but lorries and motor omnibuses, motors of all kinds and whizzing bicycles usurp the road. To me there is something inexpressingly revolting in their violent rush, their vulgar gesture of contempt for the old stabilities of field and homestead, their brainless scorn for the past, their entire lack of dignity, tradition and culture... This riot of blatant reckless hustling is alien to the historic English temperament.

So wrote H.E.G. Rope MA in a book, 'Forgotten England'. In 1931. Interesting that he (assuming H was a he) included cyclists amongst the manic horde. By then, of course, all England's main roads had been tarmac'd and classified, and were rapidly filling up with traffic. One author had a theory as to why this happened so fast:

As motor transport became important the road system was reformed with astonishing speed, perhaps because the local authorities were, for the most part, owners of motor-cars.
F. Sherwood Taylor, The Century of Science, 1940

Perhaps if the Town Clerks and Highway Engineers had been cyclists, things would have been different. Whatever their motives, British road builders weren't always so efficient:

The business of road making in this country has been confined almost entirely to the management of individuals wholly ignorant of the scientific principles on which it depends.
Sir Henry Parnell, A Treatise on Roads, 1838

And this was the road makers' response -- or is it a message from cyclepath construction charity Sustrans?

The rise of the motor-car changed all that. Vast weights rolling at unprecedented speeds once more overcame the road-maker's defences. Now, at great cost, we are once more getting to grips with the destroyer... We stand once more in the thick of the fight, and out of the dust and thunder of ruined highways we see emerging a network of new thoroughfares which already ranks our period with that of the Romans and the great roadmen of the early nineteenth century.
Anthony Collett, The Changing Face of England, 1926

For better or worse, we were now firmly on the path towards a great roads economy. Some seemed to think it hailed a brave new era, though with a hint of ambivalence:

In all our island story there have been only three periods of deliberate and systematic road making. The first was the Roman era. The second was that of the Industrial Revolution... The third great epoch is the present, dating from the perfection of the motor-car in the last years of the last century, which has filled our roads as they were never filled before, and has made them a desolation and a hissing [sic] to the pedestrian.
H.J. Randall, History in the Open Air, 1936

But even then, as this 'third great epoch', was getting well into its stride, there were voices of dissent:

A motorist is apt to complain of the 'overcrowded' condition of the road if he finds he has not continually got a whole mile-long stretch of it to himself, but is one of a widely spaced and rapidly moving queue of half a dozen or so. He will declare there is no pleasure in motoring under such conditions. He will search his map for some alternative route by quiet lanes where he can speed along with the road to himself. And when others find that alternative route and all further alternatives are exhausted, he proceeds to demand a new road system so that his motoring may again become a pleasure.
Thomas Sharp, Town and Countryside, 1932

In fact, it's all starting to sound a little familiar:

Congestion in innermost London has already reached such a pitch that on main routes through the city vehicles are often reduced to a slow walk. What would be the result of placing on our market a vehicle resembling the 'people's car', which is to be sold in Germany, we are told, at about £50!
Sir Charles Bressey, The Highway, 1939

Three things in life are certain -- death, taxes and a politician's promise:

I also intend to speed up... road work required to relieve congestion of traffic in London and other cities... If Parliament sees fit to grant the necessary powers, it would be my intention to start on a further number of motor roads where that course is found to be preferable to the widening or by-passing of the existing roads. The latter, freed from fast-moving through traffic, would then remain available for pedestrian, cyclist and local motor traffic, which would then use them in greater comfort and security.
Rt Hon Alfred Barnes, Minster of Transport, 1946

Note the careful wording. It was already abundantly clear that congestion had the makings of a problem beyond the remit of politicians. Despite the difficulties, optimists still thought they were witnessing the dawning of the Great Road Era:

The majority of the public today relies for transport of every kind mainly on the roads, and everything goes to show that they are doing so to an unprecedented degree... People travel now more than they have ever travelled, and in the future they will travel still more. If they want more roads to travel by, you may be sure that they will get them, for in the last analysis nothing can stop the development of the road.
R.M.C. Anderson, The Roads of England, 1932

Maybe the turn of the 20th Century will be seen as the time when RMC Anderson's vision was finally overturned. Anyway, let's leave the last word to H.E.G. Rope:

The rain beat down stormily and I had to shelter under a scanty clump of beeches. The speedsters snorted by me with scornful pity, poor souls, little dreaming that pity was their own due, fleeing incessantly from the empty boredom to which they have reduced 'modern life', rushing furiously nowhither like Maenads astray, their quest all, 'full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.'