1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140 
Bird 's eye view by the Hawk
Page 56
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
* All the answers
As a race, traffic superintendents are experts on the geography of their particular areas. Obviously they have to be. Unexcelled in this respect is Alec Quayle, head of the traffic department of Isle of Man Road Services Ltd. Apart from the fact that the area is relatively small and he has a 40-year record of service with the company, Alec's twin hobbies of cycling and painting have inspired him to explore every bit of highway on the Island. His paintings, not only of the Isle of Man but also of England, Wales and Ireland, are in considerable demand. However, his chief claim to fame is as one of the two instigators. back in the 1930s, Of the Manx Bicycle TT, an event that in the course of the intervening years has brought many thousands of visitors from the mainland and further afield.
* Things people ask. .
The things they ask. Listen to a phone conversation between an inquirer and one of CM's technical bods recently.
Caller: "This is Blank Services Ltd. I'm engaged on a market research exercise for a company planning to make vehicle equipment and am doing a survey of those big 'lorries with 14 wheels, a big round tank and hinged in the middle."
CM man: "Artie tanker you mean."
Caller: "Do I? Well anyway, I'd like to come to talk to someone to get a picture for Yorkshire as I'm told you know what's going on in transport. I want to know how many of these artic tankers, as you call them, are in use, who made them, what sizes they are and what they are made of and so on. It shouldn't take long."
CM man: who has had some before, and been stuck for ages with similar inquirers—they are usually quite suprised to find it is not easy to get every detail they want in order to write their 5.000 word reports): "If what you ask would take only a short time, I could help you, but the information you want is just not available. Any figures can only be very rough estimates which would surely be useless. I'd be wasting your time and mine, of which I have none to spare. How about employing a transport consultant?"
Caller: "Him. But surely there are figures available somewhere?"
CM man: "No. A professional consultant could, for a fee, write a report with estimates and background information."
Caller: "But can't you put me on to something that would give me a general picture?"
CM man: "Not with anything like the accuracy you want."
Caller: "Ah well, I'll probably have to take a sample of a small area."
CM man: "Don't forget that transport is not like the detergent market.
And so it went on for a little while longer. Within reason, one is happy to help readers or other folk in the transport business, but so many people treat trade and technical journals as sources of free consultation. They would not dream of ringing up a lawyer or similar "professional gentleman" for free advice, I'm sure.
* Canadian gumbo
I hear Fred Hope has had a charming letter from the wife of a Canadian haulier who lives at Dawson Creek, in the shadow of the Rockies. She thanks him for taking the trouble to send literature on the anti-jackknife device his company makes, and then gives him a rundown on the typical conditions faced by truckers up there near the Alaska Highway. Such as: "Only 86 miles of the highway are paved, so that the trucks are on mud and gravel most of the way. They are driving on ice and snow seven months of the year at temperatures between 20 and 60 below zero. This all the way from Dawson Creek to Fairbanks. In the Spring and Fall they are on gumbo. Do you know what this is? It's mud, and anywhere from a foot to three foot thick. It sets like concrete when dry and makes a wheel immovable. If you start to slip in it the mud moves with you and it is hard to get out because the whole vehicle moves sideways."
And we grumble because the local council is a couple of hours late salting the roads.
* Small circles
When a correspondent wrote recently in CM about the abandonment of small roundabouts as a possible_ move towards reducing stability problems with high vehicles I found myself sympathizing with him. So there is a certain piquancy in the fact that Road Research Laboratory experiments have now shown that the capacity of roundabouts is considerably increased by making the centre island smaller and opening out the entrances. This sounds to me like a recipe for increasing the stability problems—both by encouraging faster approach to and exit from roundabouts and by making the turns sharper. Can all the parties please get together on this?
Already the new small-circle plan is being applied at a three-way junction in Peterborough, and now the same thing is to be done at the Western Avenue/Cardiff Road junction in Cardiff, where five roads meet.