As noted earlier, the art of road construction was first introduced into Europe and Britain by the Romans. These roads were meant primarily to serve military functions; their social and commercial roles were secondary. They were used for mobilising soldiers and policing conquered territories. These roads were so solidly made that some of them survived hundreds of years till the period of the Industrial Revolution. However, much of the roads suffered neglect and were never maintained after the fall of the Roman Empire and throughout the Dark Ages.
Consequently, the British road network was generally poor at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. British early roads were narrow and often flooded in winter.
Travelling was done on foot or horseback as little wheel traffic was known. In the 17th and 18th centuries, pack horse was almost the universal means of carrying goods over land. Before the 17th century, wheel vehicles were little used on the roads. It was not until the early 18th century that stage coaches driven by a coach man first appeared on British roads. Even then, the heavy wheeled-vehicles destroyed this type of road and they were regarded as nuisances.
However, there was great improvement in road transport in Britain in the late 18th and 19th centuries. This was as a result of the Turnpike system and also improvement in highway engineering. The idea behind the Turnpike system was that travellers be made to contribute to the cost of road construction and maintenance through payment of tolls.
The idea was also to relieve the heavy financial burden of road maintenance on the parishes (local administration). The Turnpike system contributed towards improving the standard of British roads in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It brought some improvement in the methods of road construction. Indeed, with little support from the parishes and the central government, very little road improvement would have been possible without the Turnpike Trusts.
Turnpike Trusts were statutory bodies created by the parliament to administer the Turnpike system. By the 19th century, the Trusts produced an ever increasing mileage of good highways throughout the country. Mere horse tracks were converted into something resembling modern roads. The Turnpike system laid the foundation for the development of modern transport system in Britain. In spite of its advantages, the system faced a number of problems.
(i) Administrative inefficiency
(ii) It failed to establish a national system of road communication. Rather, it produced a multitude of scattered, unconnected Turnpike administrations.
(iii) Financial mismanagement due to very loose supervision. In the collection of tolls, the system led to ‘endless evasion, inequalities and favouritism of all kinds, arbitrary exactions and systematic petty embezzlements.’
These deficiencies, coupled with the bitterness of many people against the Turnpike trusts, often resulted in confrontations. This was because lots of people were very angry that they had to pay money to use roads that had previously been free. In some places there were violent protests and toll houses and toll gates were the targets of angry mobs.
These protests were called the Rebecca Riots.
Modern road administration in Britain began with the disappearance of the Turnpike system from the end of the 19th century and the emergence of county councils as the authority responsible for highway maintenance. This led to a better condition of roads and their widespread use in Britain. As a result of economic necessity, further efforts were made to improve British roads in the 19th century. Following improvements in road quality by 1830 practically every important place was connected with London and provincial centres by a network of fast stage-coach services. The stage coaches of the 1820s and 1830s were much improved vehicle than the heavy, slow wagons of the 18th century.
Throughout the 19th century, passenger traffic by road continued to grow and horse-drawn passenger vehicles of several kinds provided passenger services in London and the large cities in Europe. The British omnibus, the ancestor of the modern motor bus was introduced into Britain in 1829. With this, many bought buses and put them in hire-service. Many of the operators were one-man businesses; few companies participated.
However, the 20th century witnessed an unprecedented growth of the motor road transport in Europe. This growth was the result of remarkable development of the internal combustion engine. The commercial success of powered vehicles was preceded by a long period of experiment dating to the 19th century. Various vehicles were made in the 15th century including those powered by steam, coal, gas, and later on the gasoline or petrol-powered engines.
The commercial production of motor vehicles in Europe began in 1880s. It started in Germany and then France. In 1888, Karl Benz established the world’s first automobile production. Benz’s automobile was technically a tricycle, but it was the first serial production motorised vehicle. The following year, Wilhelm Maybach and Gottlieb Daimler built a new type of vehicle, which was, from ground up, designed as an automobile, not a carriage or a coach with an engine suspended on it. By the end of the 1890s, several types of cars were produced in Britain. With these developments, the era of automobiles had effectively begun.
ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1
Assess the contribution of Turnpike system to the development of British transport system.