Road Improvement Programme
The Road Improvement Programme was a policy of Stanley Trup, mayor of Kien-k'ang from 1955 – 60. The number of privately-owned motor vehicles increased in Kien-k'ang by a factor of about 20 between 1930 and 1955, and complaints about the city's road infrastructure surfaced during the mayorship of Lord Te-rit (1947 – 1955). The policy consisted of several components aiming to allow vehicles to travel efficiently and safely in the city by widening and reinforcing roads and bridges, covering storm drains, and installing traffic lights and lamps.
New and connecting roads
Old Kien-k'ang, the region within the city walls, had a number of thoroughfares corresponding to medieval highways or new roads built in the 1800s that subdivided the city into multiple geographic districts. Within the districts delimited by highways, streets mostly formed organically, and as such they were short, crooked, narrow, and difficult to navigate if travelling a long distance. Many streets permitted travel in one direction or terminated in cul-de-sacs, or they were so narrow that only pedestrians could pass. This means a road user usually must use a thoroughfare to travel to a different district, but in Trup's time the thoroughfares had extremely heavy traffic, ofting grinding to a complete halt in busy hours.
Pavements
The traffic rules in Kien-k'ang were also an area of major change in Trup's mayorship. Originally, where the road was triple or quadruple carriageway, vehicles had priority in the central section and may drive at speed, but they must yield to pedestrians in the peripheral carriageways and only move at a speed agreeable to foot traffic. Prior to the advent of motor vehicles, horses may gallop in the centre of the road but not on its sides. The Royal Boulevard and New West Road were examples of this design. However, the central carriageway proved too narrow by the 1950s, and so vehicles travelling at speed in the peripheral carriageways rushed pedestrians.