The much-maligned motorist
12:37pm Tuesday 8th July 2008
THE current price being paid for petrol by British motorists has led to a look back at some of the other difficulties car drivers have had to contend with since the first automobile came onto the roads.
Ever since the combustion engine was invented in 1876, the motorist has had to keep within the law or be prosecuted by the police.
Even in its infancy, the motor car had to travel at four miles per hour with a man walking in front of it with a red flag. When this law was abolished in 1896, the speed limit everywhere was 20mph until 1930.
From the turn of the century, drivers of horse-drawn vehicles complained that motorists made their animals nervous when they sped past, while residents would moan about the amount of dust that was thrown up from the unmade roads.
In 1906, the secretary of the Motor Union complained to Hampshire County Council that children were throwing stones at passing vehicles, and that teachers should point out to the children that the practice was dangerous. But the county council decided to take no action.
In those early days of the 20th century, most people either cycled or walked to work, the thought of buying a car being well out of their reach as a four-seater 6hp model cost £100 - far too much in those hard times.
In Britain in 1904, there were 8,465 cars on the roads, but by 1910 this had risen to 53,196. It reached the million mark by 1930.
In Basingstoke, two businessmen trading in bicycles decided to sell the cheaper type of motor cars - and so began many years of business in the town for Fred Watson, of Wote Street, and Walter Webber, of London Street.
As more and more vehicles passed through the town, the local council realised that it would have to improve and widen its roads, with Winchester Road and Worting Road some of the first in the early 1920s.
But worse was to come when the summer traffic began to clog up the town centre roads of Winchester Street and London Street as holidaymakers headed down to the coast.
A bypass became necessary, so land was used south of the town for that purpose and the new road was opened in 1931.
When the Second World War began in 1939, the government told local councils to remove all direction signs from the roads, to confuse any German raiders who had infiltrated into the country.
However, this did not help motorists travelling through the country on business, and for night-time travellers, the government's insistence on using sidelights and not headlights caused even more headaches.
There was also the problem of petrol rationing, which limited how much could be bought, therefore restricting motorists' movements.
Once the war was over, things slowly got back to normal and the many car manufacturers who had changed their businesses to make military vehicles during the conflict were able to return to producing more modern models of cars.
Between 1945 and 1960, the number of cars upon Britain's roads grew from one million to more than five million.
During the past 50 years, roads around Basingstoke have seen a vast increase in traffic, much of which has been brought about by the Town Development Scheme, which increased the town's population from the 1951 figure of 16,000 to 92,000-plus currently.
In Basingstoke, like other towns and cities, parking has been a problem and parts of the town centre had to be cleared of buildings to allow cars to park near the shops.
One project was the clearance of structures at the rear of London Street and the original New Road, to create the Central Car Park.
Other schemes to control the flow of vehicles included the installation of traffic lights, the first of these being installed at the bottom of Church Street in 1952. Others followed at the crossroads of Essex Road/Worting Road/Penrith Road in 1967, and at Gifford's Corner (Winchester Street/New Street/ Victoria Street) in 1976.
Meanwhile, in 1960, the town's first one-way system was established along Hackwood Road, Southern Road, Victoria Street, Winchester Street and London Street.
The Town Development Scheme of the 1960s gave us the ring-road system which began in 1968.
The roundabouts for which Basingstoke is so well known assisted traffic flow from 1969, when the Victory Roundabout was built.
Meanwhile, the M3 motorway was being built south of Basingstoke, with the section between junctions three and eight being opened in May 1971.
But although the government has made travelling much better with new roads, and cars have been designed with all sorts of safety devices, the motorist still has to cope with the ever-increasing volume of traffic.
Just recently there has been a renewed interest in cycling to work, so that might mean the motor car will become redundant.
Who knows!