Motorcab Topics.
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A private company, with a nominal capital of .4, LOU, and with its office at 133, High Holborn, WC., has been registered as the Four-cylinder Taxicab Company, Limited.
The St. Annes-on-Sea Motor Car and Cab Company, Limited, has been registered, with its office at the garage, Alexandra Drive, St. Annes-onSea, Lancashire, and with an authorised capital of ;4,2,000 in J.-, shares.
A Paper on Motorcabs.
Before the Coventry branch of the Incorporated Institution of Automobile Engineers, Mr. L. J. Shorter (Humber, Limited) read a paper on " Motor Cabs" on the 5th instant. A description was given of the mechanical features of the principal types of motorcabs, and a number of suggestions were offered whereby improvements might be effected. The author advocated the use of epicyclic gears, and wire, detachable road-wheels.
Successful Cabs at Reading.
We understand that Mr. William Vincent, of Castle Street, Reading, is getting encouraging results with his fleet of 12-14h.p., four-cylinder link chassis, which vehicles are fitted with bodies of his own censtruction and design. Each cab carries four passengers, and is built to comply with Scotland Yard requirements. Six of them have been running all the winter, and six more are about to be added, which will render the fleet one of a most representative character. Reading•is the centre of a large residential county area, and many fares
of from six to 32 miles offer. Incidentally, we may say that Vincentbuilt bodies are deservedly popular in many other parts of the country, and that " the trade " buys them largely.
"Unic" Cabs.
Mann and Overton's, Limited, whose business in Utile cabs continues to be highly satisfactory, has moved to 15, Commercial Road, Buckingham Palace Road, S.W.
At Bath.
Further to the decision which we reported on the 1st instant (page 82 ante), a memorial has been sent to the Sanitary Committee of the Bath Town Council, from 54 cabdrivers in the City, in which it is pleaded that their interests should be safeguarded at the expense of everybody else's convenience.
Belated Birmingham Protests.
The Birmingham Vehicle Owners' Protection Association and the Birmingham Trades Council appear to think that horse-drawn cabmen should be guaranteed old-time earnings, notwithstanding the march of progress in matters mechanical. Realising, apparently, that the public will have none of such a scheme for tying it to out-of-date methods of travelling, the Tramway and Vehicle Workers' Union has alternatively suggested that the City Council should " take over the cabs, horsed and motored, as they had done the trams, gas, and the electricity concerns, and administer them as a municipal concern." A resolution to
that effect has been unanimously carried, arid a deputation appointed to wait upon the Watch Committee.
Hackney Carriage Licenses.
There appears to be a considerable amount of uncertainty, on the part of town clerks, as to the advice which they should tender to whichever of their committees has to do with the licensing of motorcabs. We note, for example, that the clerk to the Aldershot Council is of opinion that an urban or town council must license any applicant. This, however, is not the case, as the Town Police Clauses Acts, of 1847 and 1889, leave the number entirely at the discretion of the local licensing authority, which may license, or decline to license, as it sees fit.
General Motoreab Co.
The current traffic returns of the General Motor Cab Company are sent to us as follow :—
Increase on correspond
ing week 1908
Total receipts from 1st Aug., 1908 ... .4:476,734 Increase on previous corresponding period 4:215,776
These figures look well, but they are valueless unless the average number of cabs in service for the respective periods is also given.
A German View of " Carelessness."
The driver of a motorcab has just been sentenced by a Bremen court to nine months' imprisonment for knocking down and killing a woman who, as the evidence showed, was too deaf to hear his repeated signals with the horn. In delivering judgment, the court expressed the opinion that he had been guilty of carelessness "during the last to seconds," and would have to go to prison. The judges said he ought to have reckoned upon the woman's not noticing the cab's approach, " although with blameable heedlessness on her part." "Loud and Continuous" Warning.
One of the frequent criticisms upon the proposed police action, and an oftrepeated enquiry, is : " How will the police identify the offending cab or bus when several or more are giving forth the same note at the same time? " A correspondent in "The Morning Leader" cites Piccadilly Circus as a crowded spot at which this difficulty will be experienced more particularly, but we scarcely think the driver of a motorcab or motorbus would attempt to approach the full legal speed there.
So far as another common objection goes, that the new regulation will involve "loud and continuous "
noise, and will be a nuisance to the public, it appears to be overlooked that the indication is intended as a warning to the driver, and that, whatever the other objections may be, it cannot reasonably be anticipated that there will be any considerable volume of continupus noise, or a medley of noises. Our view, as expressed last week, is that the public will object very much to the arbitrary limitation of speed when the road is open, and that users of motorcabs and motorbuses alike will, after a few weeks of experience, join hands to demand the abolition of this plan of control, which will interfere with normal traffic requirements.