C LEAN living on the roads has the arm support of
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the official representatives of both passenger and goods transport. This fact was obvious from the views put' forward by delegates of the Road Haulage Association, the National Road Transport Federation and the Public Transport Association, when the Clean AirConference at Harrogate last week discussed " Air Pollution from Road Vehicles."
Mr. J. T. Turner (R.H.A. Vehicles Committee chairman) agreed that therewere culprits, but thought that they were more likely to comprise I per cent. than the 25 per cent, that had been suggested. At no time had the Federation been asked to co-operate in abating the nuisance mentioned. A point which he felt should be taken into consideration was that the numerical increase in diesel-engined commercial vehicles was such that the available force of trained mechanics had not risen with the same speed. His association had asked that the easy starting device should be moved out of the driver's reach. The association was always stressing the importance of avoiding dense exhaust discharge.
P.T.A. Barking The Public Transport Association was 100 per cent, behind the National Association for Clean Air on the questions that had been discussed during the particular session, said Mr. Peter Yorke. Although the elimination of dense' exhaust smoke was quite appallingly exosnsive, those who desired it had nothing to fear from opposition by the operators. If occasional black sheep got caught, it was all to the good. However, the P.T.A. could not accept the figures given by Mr. Douglas Lister, which suggested that 80 per cent, of public service vehicles were unclean
Another speaker from the P.T.A. commented that observations had been taken by the R.A.C., aided by the A.A., on 12,000 vehicles. Whereas Mr. Lister suggested there was cause for complaint on 25 per cent., the R.A.C. figure was only 8 per cent.
No Need So long as oil-engined vehicles were properly designed and operated there was no need whatever for theie to be dense exhaust discharges, said Drs A. Parker. They had, however, to consider the question of overiciadin'g,' He understood that London Transport never operated at more than 90 per cent, of the nominal vehicle load. The diesel engine was a most efficient device, but they should beseeking to use the fuel to generate power rather than to dispose Of part of it after generation.
Los Angeles, where goods vehicle exhausts discharged upwards, had a wellestablished system for dealing with air paution. he continued. Patrols followed vehicles that were showing dense exhausts for a certain time, took a photograph on the move with the aid of-a camera having a rapid-development device, stopped the driver, showed him the picture and took action against him. During one recent period, prosecutions were running at the
rate of 100 a month. The speaker -felt that a:valuable instrument would be one which indicated to the driver when his vehicle was causing trouble, so that awarning was available.
Police at training school's were going to receive technical instruction regarding' this type of offence, said Mr. A. Burton, Chief Constable of the North Riding. The primary object was prevention, and much work to assist the position was done behind the scenes. In his area, there had been a substantial increase in the number of smoke-nuisance eases reported and an average fine of f10 had been inflicted. At a later stage, Mr. Burton said that police in various parts of Britain were experimenting with photography from moving vehicles as a means of checking black smoke.
• Was it a fact that public health was menaced by diesel fumes? After posing this question Mr. R. Williams (chief public health inspector, Coventry) said that dirty cups might not carry disease but they knew that clean cups definitely would not do so. The same reasoning should be applied to the matter of air pollution.
The problem of who was going to be responsible for enforcement of clean airlaws clearly agitated a number of the delegates but an individual member, Miss D. Boyd (London), said thatif traffic wardens were really successful in getting cars moving on the road they