Important Views about London Traffic.
Page 2
Page 3
Page 4
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
A Remarkable Change of Opinion with Regard to Motorbuses ; Tramway Developments Defer Street Improvements ; the Problem of the Penny Fare.
The second Annual Report of the London Traffic Branch el the Board of Trade—dated 30th October, 1909— was piddiehed last tveek. In many ways, it must, at once. be We lcomed ne a most-iin 1)1)1111 lit flocument, both to the commercial-moter user and to the maker. The traffic problems of 61-eater Loudon, and the attempts at their sadittion. furnish instructive Mita to the cities 01 the world. The present reportconstitutes, in reality, the first eecaeiun epon tvlitell the nertorbus has been field to merit anything in the nature of whole-hearted official api.roval it must, in future, be regarded as a profit-earning Liaoi. in the paesenger-can.yieg transport of large ventres of 1,4,1)11186M. Conteniporaneously with the admitted considerable revival in the industry all round, the motorbus, after several years of severe " trying out" in 'seldom has, in this latest Report, compelled definite recognitimi of its inherent good qualities. The moral effect of this offieial recognition cannot be denied, and the general expansion of the uses to which industrial-motor vehieles may be pet reeeivee now yet another fillip. The linety adoption (ff the motorbus in London, a few years back, and its partial failure at once to NMI the extravagant requirements of its purchasers, undoubtedly did untold harm el the whole industry. Tts present stteuly progress towards satisfactory operation cannot but have a correspondinglystimulating effect. It is impressed with this eatisittetory development as the dominant note of the present report, that we pruleed to draw the attention of our reader,. to certain portions of the 192 pp. for whoee eempilatine Il Herbert Jekyll is responsible.
Last year', report very largely emeisted of a review of the (.1nellisinns readied by the Rose! Commissiou on the moans id' Locomotion and Transport in lemdon. It may interest some of our readers again to refer to our digest of that publicatirm ; it appeared in (nil' iesttee for the 19th am! 26t1 I November, 190S. The 'new volume repeats a good deal that was said last veer ; trellie statistics are brought forward another year, and we ere definitely promised the taking-in-hand, at an eddy date. of an inquiry on the subject of arterial roads; the preparation of an exhaestive plan of Greater London. and the proper organization of means to secure reliable traffic etatisties. at regular intervals, at all important points, are foreshadowed. Complaint is made by Sir Herbert Jekyll, ill his prefatory note, that the work of the London Traffic Braneh has hitherto been restricted by the smallness of its staff. This drawback has now been removed, and we may reasonably anticipate inleweed activities dieing the coming year.
How London's Population Travels.
As in the 1908 re pert. the new olle opens wit h mita statistical information with regard to the nine in the street. and where he lives. In their general relationship to the problems of London transport LS a whole, these figures re. of course. necessary ; it is rather, however, with an examination of the present means of travelling, and the enumerative merits and prospect( of the rival (systems— bus, rail and tram—that we are concerned at the moment.
We reproduce a table showing the growth of the whole passenger traffic of Greater Isindon during the past six elites. It is interesting to eompare the total passengerjnorneys ill 1881. i.e., 269 millions, with those 27 years later, i.e., 1.377 millions. The inerease is at the rate of over -II in per year. The inest-remarkahle fact, to %Odell these iiguree. when they are divided into the three main (•leseee ii traffie. testify, is that the growth in the total of omnibus passengers (as returned) during 1908, after a set-back in 1907, was nearly half as much again as the corresponding growth in the tramway totals; the figures. with regard to loval railways, show the smallest total gain. If emisidered as relntive increases, they are still
more favmtrahle to the ninterbue. The Londoners travelling propensities are still tending upward, and this fact is largely attributable to the extension of facilities, hut, the report adds, a point has now been reached at whiell the provision of new facilities has ceased to increase at. anything approaching the rate oh the last six years.It is evident that very large additions to London's transport arrangements will, in the immediate future, become ineieseary. The trannvey will amount for some of thece. bet there is every indieetion of further good openings for metorime employment et an early (late.
We would here draw attention to the fact that, in this report, several numerival discrepancies have come to our notice. For instance, in the above passenger totals, there is a difference between the 1881 figures, as quoted in the 1908 and 1909 tables, of no less than 10 millions; there is a faulty addition in the table of the hackney-carriage returns; and the statentenes of the number of passengers carried "per ear-mile " are not supportable. Statistics, to be of any rise at all, 11Ltiat be free from any suspicion of inacettraey : a clerical error is serious.
Street Improvements.
Noethat we have a promise that the question of existing and prospective arterial roads is, at last, to be exemined with some degree of thoroughnees, it is natural that the special ease of the existing Euston and Marylebone roads should again become prominent. As in the last report, this existing artery is considered rather fully. We gather that further praetieal development is indefinitely cheeked. became of the maze of legal appeals in which the question of frontages is temporarily lost. Sir Herbert Jekyll says of this example: " The Euston Road has been referred to at some length, beenuse it is conspicuous as an exainple of an important road which might be widened withont exeessive test." Ever since 1756, the question of frontage in this road bee been in dispute. Lack of available funds does not seem to be the only hindrance to imprevement in London thoroughfares.
An extremely-important sidelight. on the activities of the I■Al.C_ Tramways Department is furnished in a Report of the Improvements Committee dated 12th May, 1909. It cannot be undereteod too elearly, hereafter, that the general convenience of public traffic in the etreete; of Greater Louden is deliberately being made subservient to the selfish requirements of those responsible for the ti enmity net.. ork. The followmg quotation should speak for :--
" It is desirable to call attention to the serious extent to which work with regard to imprevemente for the general traffic is being affected by the tramway policy of the Conned. During the earlier years of the electrification of the system, the Council very naturally devoted attention principally to those routes which were of sufficient width not to involve any considerable expenditure on street improvements. These advantageous routes are now practically completed. In future the extension and reemettruction of the tramway system will to a great extent lie along streets in which a heavy expenditure on widenings will be necessary. The demands of the highways Committee are urgent. Delay may mean a loss in tramway receipts. We are, therefore, called upon by the Highways Committee to accelerate certain improvements, and to undertake others in the interests of the tramways, and consequently to retard or to postpone other improvements which we may regard as more urgent from the point of view of the general traffic requirements of London. 11 must also be borne in mind that the acceleration of an improvement in the interests of the tramways often involves the expenditure of large sums in trade compensation and the purchase of leasehold interests. en expenditure which might be almost wholly avoided if we were free to curry out such improvements in our own time and according to our established policy."
A consideration which must, of necessity, be seriously taken into account, in connection with all street-improvement schemes, is the difficulty of disposing of large tireda of valuable surplus lands. In the case of part. of the Victoria Embankment, this took 25 years, and 50 years went by before the Commissiorers for the building of Victoria Street bad no land left on their hands.
Roads and Motor Traffic.
Considerably-more space is devoted in the 1909 Report, frail in the previous year, to the effect of various types of motor vehicles upon road surfaces. Tar-spraying is commended as an economical method of dealing with macadainIzed roads, and careful observations and records, made by officials of the Borough of Fulham, are quoted at useful length on this subject.
The long-suffering but objectionable horse achieves official condemnation at last in the following lines.— " Artificial watering is injurious to permeable roads. The operation in any case is expensive, and water carts, which necessarily move at a slow pace, obstruct traffic. . . Dust in towns is particularly harmful because owing to the presence of horses; it contains innumerable noxious germs, such as the bacilli of typhoid fever and pneumonia."
Criticisms of the excessive camber of certain asphaltpaved thoroughfares, which appeared in this journal last September; find some reflection in the report:— " If roadways were made fiat, instead of being convex in section, mud would not accumulate at the sides, and foot pavements would not be splashed as they are now. It would moreover be easier for heavy traffic to keep to the kerb than it is in the case of a heavily-cambered road."
Mr. John Burns's reply, in June last, to a question asking for information with regard to the cost of maintenance and cleansing of roads in recent years, is quoted in tabular form. The purport of these figures is emphasized in the sentences:—
" Expenditure on the roads has tended to diminish rather than to increase since motor vehicles came into general use notwithstanding an increase in the mileage of roads, and their increased use due to the growth of traffic which has un
doubtedly taken Owe. Motor traffic, so far from adding to the coat of maintenance, appears to diminish it, and it certainly reduces the labour of cleansing. " Incidentally the displacement of horses benefits traffic by lessening the cartage of forage, straw and manure through the streets. Tire value of market-garden land is said to be falling off owing to the increasing difficulty in obtaining immure."
Motorcabs and Motorbuses.
The figures, which have reference to the increased employment of the taxicab in Paris and in London, and which e have compiled as it table, that is reproduced on this page, from statistics contained in the Report, are, perhaps, the most remarkable illustration of the developments of recent years in the realm of the public-service road vehicle. Additional significance is derived from the last official figures available for London, via., those published by us to the 31st August last, which showed a. total of 3,950.
A brief history of the motorcab movement of the past few years is included in this section and emphasis is laid upon the statement that hansoms are being superseded so fast that their complete disappearance at no distant date appears to be probable." Figures which were extracted from a circular addressed by the General Motor Cab Co., Ltd., to its shareholders in July, 1909, are quoted as an instance of successful operation. We reproduce these results in tabular forms It must not be assumed that 37s. 6d., stated to have been the average receipts per cab per day during last June, represents the average receipts of the ordinary London znotorcab.
The section which deals with the motorbus is the most remarkable of the volume ; it definitely sets an official seal upon the motorbus as a very important factor in London's scheme of internal transport. In the 1908 Report we read as follows:— " It is doubtful whether, even now, motor omnibuses work at it profit. . There does not appear to be any imme• diate prospect of considerable additions, leading to the further supersession of the horse omnibuses." ' Although the motor omnibus has become firmly established in London . . . . it has not been successful financially, and a point has been reached at which further advance has not come clearly into view. . . Unless an early remedy is discovered and applied, the industry as a whole may he in difficulties "
The change of opinion which has taken place during the past year is evidenced in the following extracts from the new volume:—
" The motorbuses now pay better than the horse buses."
" Manufacturers have been holding their hands in the ahssnce of orders but it is believed that a new departure is about to be made, and that the building of new omnibuses of an improved type will soon begin on a considerable scale. Manufacture and maintenance will both be cheapened by a reduction in the number of types, and the standardisation of parts."
" As rivals to tramways, motor omnibuses are likely to become more formidable than they have been fiitherto, since they will be cheaper to work, and will travel longer distances than heretofore. Tramways have long since reached a stage at whit& there would appear to be little room for further improvementeither in efficiency or in cheapness. Motor omnibuses, on the other hand, are wily beginning to show their capacity for dealing with traffic in large volume, and there is still an ample margin for improvement. As an instrument of locomotion the omnibus is in its infancy, whereas the tramway has come to maturity. The tramway will probably retain it superiority where traffic is heavy and constant, and where the roads are so wide that the tramcars do not interfere materially with other traffic. In such situations they can travel at fair speeds without repeated delays and stoppage to avoid collision, whereas in narrow streets frequent stops reduce the average speed to such an extent that the advantage of quirk travelling. which they ought to afford is lost.
" Even in the imperfect conditions that have prevailed hitherto, omnibus competition has been so effective that municipal authorities have been reduced to appeal to the ratepayers to patronise their own tramways. Some tramway undertakings are worked at a loss, but so much money has been sunk in their construction that it is often less unprofitable to eontiene the service than to suspend It, whereas onmibuecs
which cease to earn their expenses on U110 route can ba moved to another, without sacrifice of capital expenditure. The omnibus has other advantages over the tramcar. The service is much more flexible, since the omnibus can avoid obstructions or change its route, and it can follow narrow or winding roads and turn sharp corners. Tramlines in a street are always objectionable, and overhead equipment is unsightly as well. Tramcars obstruct traffic, and unless streets are wide, the■ itterfcre with the standing of vehicles at the sides. Clreat incomenience is apt to arise during the periods of construction, reconstruction and repair—an inconvenience which is especially marked in the case of municipal tramways. " There are indications of a great development of the motor omnibus industry in the near future and the supersession, possibly to the point of extinction, of the horse omnibus. It is probable that motors will make longer journeys especially on radiating routes where there are suitable roads. The horsepower of the newer engines is being increased from 24 to 30, and no hill to be met with in the neighbourhood of London will offer a serious obstacle, There is indeed much in the present aspect of the motor industry that may give pause to the promoters of tramways though' the latter will probably hold their own, where roads are wide, and traffic conditions are specially favourable."
With reference to this last paragraph, it is interesting to remember that, in 1905, the Royal Commission reported:— " We cannot recommend the postponement of tramway extension in London on the grnund of any visible prospect of the supersession of tramways by motor omnibuses."
There should be much in the above extracts to make interesting rending, for Mr. A. L. C. Fell, the Chief Officer of the L.C.C. Tramways Department, who is reported to have said, at the Municipal Tramways Association Conference in London last summer, that, in 20 years' time, rare specimens of the motor-omnibus would be found in South Kensington Museum.
A further interesting comparison is possible between the sections which deal with those motorbuses which are propelled by other systems than the internal-combustion engine. In 1908 we read :—
" The motor omnibuses now on the streets are, with comparatively few exceptions, propelled by internabcombustion petrol engines. Steam is used to a limited extent and is ...rowing in favour. . . . . . There are said to be mechanical difficulties, but these are being overcome, and improvements are being made which may lead to a more extended employment of steam. " Electric onmibulies are in use in small hut increasing numbers. . . . Electricity has great advantages over all other kinds of power for public vehicles."
In the 1909 volume, this subject is dealt with as follows :— " The preference hitherto enjoyed by the internal-combustion engine is not likely to diminish, Steam has had an exhaustive trial, but is not gaining ground, since some of the difficulties in the application of steam machinery to omnibuses have so far proved insurmountable, though improvements may still be made.. Electricity offers many advantages, but it, is costly, and the weight of storage batteries is a drawback."
Tramcar Traffic.
More than nine pages of the Report are devoted to an necount of the extension and working of the London tramways. Through booking in conjunction with other systems is regarded as a useful development, but only in so far as the convenience of passengers who travel a short distance across the boundary is concerned.
Figures are quoted which reveal the extent of passenger traffic on the L.C.C. tramway system for the year, and, by the simple process of dividing the number of passengers by the number of car miles, a result is reached which is supposed, as the Report puts it, " to show that 10.8 passengers were carried for each mile run by electric cars . . _ a. low average of loading baying regard to the capacity of the cars." In reality, this figure is misleading; it' assumes that each passenger travels. on the average, one mile exactly. Of Ohl total number of passengers for the year ended 31st March, 1909, 24.22 per cent. had lid. tickets: 48.04 per relit, bad la. tickets ; 9.89 per cent. had 2d. tickets, and only .04 per cent.
were " fares " the average fare was 1.07d., as against
1.08d. in the previous twelve months. The average distance covered by the ld. London tramway fare varies from 1.16 mile in Erith to 2.18 miles in Croydon. A workman in London may travel 20 miles for 2d.1 " in such cases," the Report proceeds, " the fare is much less than the expense of conveyance, since a passenger cannot be carried more than four miles for a penny without loss.".
Local Railways.
Twenty-three pages are devoted to a review of the situation with regard to local railways, which include tubes and the metropolitan portions of the great trunk companies. We learn that the North-West London scheme for a tube between Crieklewood and Victoria may be regarded as " practically dead."
Considerable attention is given to the effort of the Central London tube to improve its receipts by the introduction of id. fares. The cost of carrying a passenger the distance of a 1d. fare is .96d., so the margin of profit for
tube" companies on this class of traffic is small. The motorbus is, of course, the Central London's keen competitor in the matter of id. fares, along practically its e hole route.
The immediate effect of the development of commercial-motor traffic is recorded in the following sentences :—
" Motor traffic may help to stimulate railway goods and parcels traffic, but on the other hand the conveyance by motor vehicles of parcels and mails hitherto carried by railway is growing year by year. Tramways, though active competitors, sometimes act, as feeders to railways, but as far as can be ascertained motor vehicles abstract traffic and bring little or nothing in return."
Traffic Census.
Under the heading " Statistics of Traffic," a useful table, which we reproduce, is included. The figures were compiled, from a census of traffic passing eight selected points in the City of Westminster, in the course of a single day, or the average of several days, between the
Table Showing Changes in the Nature of Traffic.
Toe selected points are—Old Bond Street, by Piccadilly; Charing Cross, by Craig's Celia ; Knightsbridge, by Strathuairn Statue; Piecaaill.Y. by St, James's Church; Regent Street, by Swallow Street ; Strand, by Grand Hotel ; Victoria Street, by Standard Music Hall ; Great Smith Street, 1w Library.
hours of 8 a.m. and 12 p.m. It is estimated that, at the present time, the proportion of motor traffic is not less than 50 per cent. of the whole. Reference is made to the postal inquiries in 1908, by this journal, of over 700 owners of commercial vehicles, with a view to ascertaining the growth of the numbers of these machines over a period of ten years. In the conclusion of this section we read:— " There is every reason to anticipate that. the conveyance of pessengers and goods by road will continue to increase largely. and that the improvements in the construction of motor vehicles of all kinds, the lowering of their cost, and the reduction in working expenses, will hasten the snperseasion of animal transport which has already made conspicuous progress. Motor vehicles have won their way on their merits, in the face of the difficulties incidental to the employment of new and untried machines, and t-hat they should have already displaced horse vehicles to a large extent is clear evidence of their superiority as instruments of transport. The conditions of profitable working are now well understood, and many who hnve hesitated to discard horse vehicles may be expected
to replace them with motors as they wear out."