MANCHESTER MOTOR TRAFFIC.
Page 2
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The Attempt of the Manchester Corporation to Secure Powers Which Open Up Wide Possibilities of Injustice.
By Lt.-Col. A. Hacking, D.S.O., M.C., General Secretary Motor Legislation Committee.
APROPOS the very encouraging Editorial in the issue of The Commercial Motor for April 5th, I am asking the Editor to grant me a brief space in which to point out that the proposals in the Manchester Corporation Bill go far beyond the single expedient of compelling other vehicles to come to a stop where a tramcar is discharging or collecting passengers.
Section 62 of the Bill authorizes the Corporation to make by-laws :— . . (a) Regulating the traffic or any particular traffic in. streets within the city ; (b) diverting temporarily out of . any street or streets traffic of every kind or such particular kinds of traffic as may be specified in any such by-law or in any public notice which may be authorized thereby.
Under these powers, the Corporation could " regulate " all other traffic except its own tramway traffic, 06 off the principal streets of the city ! Whatever may be said in favour of granting such powers to an independent traffic authority, my committee take the view that they should not in any case be conferred upon a body owning a transport enterprise which necessarily monopolizes the greater part of the thoroughfares along which it operates. If the Manchester proposal were limited to the " stopping places " regulation it could be dealt with on. it% merits, but the section from which I have quoted opens up such wide possibilities of injustice and Preferential treatment as between the various classes of traffic that there is no alternative save that of vigorous and persistent opposition. It is significant of the Corporation's intentions that such a clause should. -be asked for at all if, as I am assured is the case, the various classes of road users in the Manchester area are only too ready and willing to co-operate with the City Council in finding a satisfactory remedy for the undoubted difficulties and dangers that are produced by existing conditions.