Hi/TS/2

A5, Watling Street Traffic Census

1930 - 1937

From: 1930 To: 1937

Traffic censuses were started before 1914 and were resumed on a regular basis for the main roads of the County in 1922 as part of a national programme sponsored by the Ministry of Transport who paid half the costs. In 1930 the Surveyor's Department started to take regular traffic censuses at the Chalk Cutting, Dunstable for those years when the Ministry sponsored surveys were not taking place. Traffic censuses were undertaken in 1930, 1933, 1934, and 1937 at a time of rapid growth in the volume of traffic. Using this series of traffic censuses the County Surveyor reported in 1938 that between 1930-1937 that traffic on Watling Street had increased by 116% The census returns record in tabular form the volume, weight and categories of traffic over a given census period, ususally a week during the summer. Each traffic census consists of a book with a page for each day of the survey. The page is vertically divided into twenty-four horizontal lines for each hour of the day and left to right across the page are recorded the categories of traffic, number and weight of vehicles using the road for that hour. Summary totals are given for each category of traffic for every hour at the right hand side of each page, and for the 24 hour period at the bottom of each page. There is a daily grand total of the returns for all categories of traffic at the bottom right hand corner of each page. At the end of each book is a summary of the returns for the whole period of the survey

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