London Traffic : Board of Trade Report.
Page 6
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The London traffic branch of the Board of Trade, which was established, in August, 1907, under the immediate direction of Colonel Sir Herbert Jekyll, K.C.M.G., has presented what promises to be the first of a series of annual reports. This report, which is priced at 45., was issued by Ills Majesty's Stationery Department late on Monday afternoon, and it is likely to be read with great interest by all who are concerned in the problem of passenger transport in and around Greater London. Sir Herbert Jekyll has succeeded in preparing a masterly synopsis of the eight huge volumes which constituted the report of the Royal Commission on London Traffic, and to the contents of which we had occasion to refer, in numerous issues, as the sections of the report and its appendices appeared, between July, 1905, and the end of that year. The amount of original contribution is small—Sir Herbert Jekyll has evidently felt that it was no part of his duty to give persona/ opinions. He acknowledges, in his prefatory note, his indebtedness to a number of public officers who have helped him in the compilation of the fresh statistical matter, and refers to the fact of numerous conferences which he has held with general managers or railway companies, and with others.
Importance of the Problem.
Attention is directed to the fact that Greater London contains 692.84 square miles of area, comprising the City of London and the Metropolitan police &strict. There are 30 independent municipal bodies in the administrative county, and 142 local authorities in the remainder. None the less, so rapidly does London extend, that it is not thought expedient finally to lay down the limits within which special measures should be taken. The population of Greater London is estimated to reach 7,537,196 by the year 1910.
It appears that the approximate total number of passengers carried by local railways, tramways and the principal omnibus companies has risen from 972,465,682 in 1903, to 1,280,840,179 in 1907, a considerable proportion of this being due to the tendency of the popu. lotion to live farther from the centre as facilities are offered.
Street Improvement Necessary.
The report throws up, in a strong light, the views of the Royal Commission as to the insufficiency of street accommodation, and comments favourably upon the alterations which have already been made at Constitution Hill and Marble Arch. It reasserts that the difficulty is simply one of money, and gives many interesting examples of Metropolitan improvements. It appears that the cost of making King,sway and Aldwych reached ..5,-,136,150, but that the net estimate, after recoupment, is stiff held to be 4.774,200. Incidentally, it is pointed out that the Northumberland-Avenue improvement resulted in the realisation of ,"tx9,000, over and above the cost, by the disposal of sur
plus land, but that, here, the street was a short one, and in a splendid position. The report proceeds (page 9) : " The expense of widening an old street— heavy as it may be—is usually less uncertain in amount, and entails a smaller initial outlay, but no general rule can be laid down as to the comparative expediency of widening and new construc tion. . • • " Before leaving this matter of street improvement, Sir Herbert Jekyll emphasises the very considerable financial contributions which have been made by the Crown, Parliament, the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, and the Commissioners of Works.
The Importance of Arterial Roads.
This section (page 16) opens with the following important statements:
" Of :ill the changes that have taken place in regard to London traffic since the Royal Commission concluded their labours, none is more remarkable than the increased use of the roads leading into the country. It was indeed foreshadowed in their report, but in 19o; it was not the accomplished fact that it has since become. The increase is alnmst entirely attributable to the growth of mechanical traffic, and is even more marked in vehicles used for commercial purposes than it is in motor cars of the ordinary type. Motor vans for the delivery of goods have come into general use, and are now employed in considerable numbers by carriers and by large dealt:r:, in furniture, provisions, and misrellaneous goods. Many of these vans make daily rounds of 6o miles or more, and serve customers in suburban districts at distances of as much as 25 miles from London. The suburban depots, from which goods were formerly distributed, have been, or are being, given up, and goods are now dispatched direct from the central warehouses to their destinations. Mails are sent by road to TAnces as far distant as Brighton, DONTI", Ramsgate and Ipswich, and new uses for motor vans have lately beer found in the conveyance of fruit from the farms to Covent Garden, and in the distribution of parcels.
" Motor traffic of all kinds shows every sign of becoming much larger in volume than it is at pr isent, and new applications ef TI,VC111111Cn I traction to the conveyance of passengers and goods will almost cerlainly be found in the near blur,. Not for this reason alone is the imporiAnce of the roads so great. If the radiating roads were wider and more numinous than they are, tramways might be largely extended, and there is no reason except the insufficiency of road accommodation why a large proportion of suburban 13assenger traffic within eight or ten miles of the centre of London should not be carried by tramway and new districts should not be opened out. The speed which electric tramcars might safely attain on wide roads is little less than the average speed of suburban railway trains, and the cost of tramways is comparatively so small that they could carry passengers profitably at fares which railways could not afford to charge. There is as yet no visible prospect of the supersession of tramways by motor vehicles, but mechanical traction is making rapid progress, and unsuspected developments may easily take place, so that in any case the demand for wide and numerous roads is (Tr. tam n to be great whatever means of locomotion may ultimately prevail."
Further on in this section (page 18), we read, in the course of Sir Herbert Jekyll's comments upon the encroachments which have been made upon the fore-courts along the Pentonville, Euston and Marylebone roads :
" Motor traffic is increasing so rapidly that if this thoroughfare were widened it would afford an alternative route to the City from the Bayswater district, whi711 would offer substantial attractions to fast traffic, and would to this extent relieve the crowded central streets. The line of roads, if widened, would fulfil another useful function in connection with the tramway system in the North of London, and one that would be of special value were the radiating roads wi(:ened, and the tramways extended. It would serve in some degree the same purpose as the Vienna • Ringstrasse,' which parav encircles the ancient City, and affords convenient points of departure for all the tramway lines radiating into the suburbs."
" For these reasons, in addition to the reasons given by the Advisory Board of Engineers, it is a matter of supreme importance that advantage should be taken of the capacity for widening which these roads still possess, and that na fresh obstacles should be suffered to grow up to hinder the improvement of a thoroughfare of which the value can hardly be overestimated."
Building Laws.
The report proceeds to refer to the want of uniformity in building laws, and to the various suggestions which. have been made with a view to the
securine of the adequate width of roads. of which the previous section makes mention. It is considered that there is need for enquiry into the working of such building laws, with a view to their amendment.
Omnibuses or Trams ?
After a curt dismissal of proposals. for motor roads, six pages are devoted to the matter of hackney and stage carriages, and, then, some ten pages to tramways. We have no space, this. week, to review the statements pro and con, but their general arrangement is such as to convey the impression that Sir Herbert Jekyll sees no reason tosuggest that motorbuses will replace tramcars._ He points out, none the less, that the Royal Commissioners' anticipations anent tramcars through the congested streets of the City have not been fulfilled.
(To be continued.)