House of Commons, Great Britain

“ Do you think that the velocity with which a Coach goes, has any thing to do with the wear of the road, or is it not actually less injurious in proportion to its velocity?—In some instances where any blow takes place the speed does more injury to the road by crushing the materials. ”

“ On the Metropolis Roads have you made any new regulations as to the mode of charging tolls by weight or otherwise?—In the last Act passed for the Metropolis Roads, the toll was put upon the horse drawings and a regulation as to the formation and breadth of the wheels expressly enacted, by which all wheels were required to be not convex, but a perfectly flat surface, with no projecting nails ”

“ Before those regulations took place, the roads in truth sustained an equal pressure, from the well known fact that the weighing Engines were universally compounded for by all the carriers, and that the roads, after these regulations, had no greater but even less weights to sustain than before that took place, and it was observing that fact, which induced the Commissioners of the Metropolis Roads to do away with all the Weighing Engines. ”

“ I beg leave to observe, that if these Carriages come into general use, they would necessarily require a still greater perfection in the surface of our roads, and also in the levelling of the remaining hills; as good surface and little inclination is to them of the greatest importance. ”

“ Does that include the weight of the Waggon?—Eight tons would; I should think the weight of the Vans about four or five tons.
Have you observed the operation of wheels when they are dragged?—Yes, they are injurious upon roads newly coated certainly, but upon an old road. I mean a road that has become consolidated upon the surface, the injury, with proper skid pans is but small, and confined of course to one side of the surface of the hill. ”