SOLID TYRES BLAMED FOR ROAD DAMAGE.
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A Municipal Official Desires that the Tax be Increased When Solid Tyres are Used and Halved when Pneumatics are Adopted.
THE first scheme to be put forward fur the consideration of the Departmental Committee on the Taxation and Regulation of Motor Vehicles, when it comes to consider the question of the best means for meeting the general call for revision of the present mode of motor vehicle taxation, is by Mr. E. L. Leeming, surveyor to the Barton-upon-Irwell Rural District Council. He states his desire to assist in obviating anomalies and removing present objections, whilst retaining, so far as possible, the present methods of licensing and registration, and taxing vehicles more nearly in accordance with the relative damage caused to the road surface by the various types. He also proposes to apply, if practicable, a small petrol tax which will operate in the direction of taxing Vehicles according to mileage on the one hand and weight and horse-power on the other.
The author of the scheme regards the present tax of £1 per horse-power for motorcars fitted with pneumatic tyres as an excessively heavy and unjust tax, in view of the fact that pneumatic tyres do practically no damage to the average road surface Tests, say be, show that pneumatic tyre deflections are proportional to the load applied, and that the cushioning properties. are retained at the end of a blow. Solid tyres show an increased density of rubber and unit. intensity of loading under increasing weights, and cushioning is decreased accordingly. The curve of rear-wheel impact relative to speed shows a rapid increase with a solid .rubber tyre, and practically no increase in the case of the pneumatic tyre.
His scheme, therefore, provides for a reduction of the -horse-power tax on cars, or on commercial vehicles fitted with pneumatic tyres, of 50 per cent.
In the ease of commercial goods vehicles, motor-omnibuses. chars-it-banes, etc., where these are fitted with solid rubber tyres, the tax should be at the rate of 30s. per horse-poweri.e., three times the rate charged for pneumatic tyres and
50 per cent, above the present tax. The object of this tax (which would be applied equally to petrol, electric or steam vehicles) is to place, within limits, the burden of cost of road maintenance upon the traffic which is responsible for such damage, and, at the same time, to offer a direct inducement to owners of vehicles to convert their solid tyres into pneumatic equipment. It is understood that rear wheels are to be considered, and not merely front-wheel conversions,. because it is the rear wheels mainly which destroy the roads. and cause corrugation.
In the case of vehicles fitted with cushion tyres a rebate on the 30s; per horse-power tax is recommended. Conimerdal goods vehicles are, of course, taxed on unladen weight and passenger vehicles on their seating capacity, and what we understand from Mr. Learning's scheme is a reduction of 50 per cent, in the case of pneurnatic-tyred vehicles and an increase of 50 per vent, in the case of solid-tyred vehicles upon the present scale of taxation. This adjustment of the `scale of taxation would show areduction in the yield, and to make up the difference Mr: Leeming suggests a petrol import duty of 3d. per gallon, benzole, kerosene and like fuels being duty-free, whilst vehicles driven by steam or electricity will, therefore, only escape the small petrol tax—an advantage which is claimed to be deserved, since these vehicles are propelled by home fuel.
is suggested that licence holders of a different shape be used to prevent fraud in the matter of tyre declarations; that the tax an motorbuses be increased if the vehicles are equipped with solid tyres: that the tax for the use of trailers be increased; and that iron tires on .trailers be disallowed. It is claimed that the scheme thue outlined would have the effect of encouraging owners to dispense with solid tyres and to adopt pheumatics, and thus help to reduce road (lama ge.