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Observations by the L.G.O.C.

21st August 1913
Page 6
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Page 6, 21st August 1913 — Observations by the L.G.O.C.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Points Concerning the Traffic Report that will Appeal to Fair.-minded People.

Constitution of the Committee.

The Committee was constituted of 15 members. AI originally constituted 11 members were, or had been, members of county councils, or borough councils, or candidates for county councils, and the substituted member of Committee appointed towards the end was also a member of a county council. Ten members who sat upon the Committee were or had been members of the L.C.C. •

Objections to the Control of Motorbus Operation by County Councils.

1. That each county council is confined within its own area, while the motorbus routes to the extent of 70 per cent. are not in one county council area, but in more than one, and in some cases as many as three.

That at the present time seven county councils would be interested in the working of the routes of the L.G.O.C., and that to be subject to the control of seven separatelyconstituted county councils having different views and different policies would be an unworkable position. 2. That county councils are the tramway authorities for . their counties. The London County Council actually owns and works its own trams..

The Middlesex and Hertfordshire County Councils own and lease their trams.

That. it is not fair and in accord with good public practice that one form of transit in the hands of private enterprise should be placed under the control of another form of transit controlled by public bodies.

That there would be no guarantee that the regulations made by the county councils would be those which were in the best interests of the public, owing to the bias which they would necessarily have, even without intending, towards their own tramway enterprises.

3. That the fiiranciaI interest of county councils in the working of motorbuses goes even further than this. County count:Pe are road-maintaining and road-improving authorities, and the report of the Committee itself mentions that certain street impaovements are required and have to be carried out by 11-e local authorities.

The regulations concerning motorbuses could be made to subserve the retardation of a street maintaining and street improving policy which would not be in the public interest. 4. The Metropolitan Police area extends to the County of London, the county of Middlesex, and parts of the counties of Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Kent, and Essex. That they hold executive control of the streets of these areas and are in no way connected with the county councils.

If the county council therefore makes a by-law and regulations, the execution of them will be in ether hands. It does not seem desirable that the executive control should be divorced from the administrative control in this way. Throughout the sitting of the Committee it was apparent that many members regarded the proceedings as an opportunity for settling favourably to the tram the present competition between tram and motorbus.

Throughout the report there are expressions which show that this was the ease. Particularly on page 18, Sections 7962 inclusive, whereby from certain routes chosen and worked by motorbus and certain routes worked by tram comparisons unfavonrable to the motorbus have been made.

It is scarcely fair that conclusions of this kind should be hand upon a selection of particular instances. Rather should the case be based upon general averages over the whole of the two systems.

In dealing with the question of fares regard has to he had to the deliberate policy of the county council latterly in reducing fares with the express purpose of accentuating the competition.

The question that. really has to be answered is, Does the London General Omnibus Co. afford an efficient service of motorbuses for the service of the public at reasonable fares, and we think that the general consensus of opinion as measured by the number of passengers carried by the motorbus will be extraordinarily strongly in favour of this.

There has been a decline in tramway traffic for this last year and an increase in motorbus traffic, and this is the real teat of the reasonableness and soundness of the two services. In particular the report deals with the stopping places of trams and motorbuses. It should not be forgotten that the motorbus under horse conditions ran in London prior to the tramways and that many of the point's used by tramways as their stopping points were those developed by the horse buses. If the London County Council is to regulate the stopping places there will be nothing to prevent them taking all the important street crossings for their own use and relegating to the buses the unimportant positions mid-way in the streets where there is no traffic to be picked up. There is not a single motorbus route worked in London today which does nothing but provide a service exactly corresponding with the service provided by the tramways. In every instance the motorbus affords new facilities either by bringing the passenger entirely into the central area instead of dumping him down on its boundary or by carrying the passenger out from the county of London proper into tho extra-London without a. break in his journey as would be necessary if he is to do it by tram. The report as it is printed is plainly drafted with regard to the London County Council area, and ignores to some extent the very large population of extra-London, a population which is continually increasing at the expense of the central area, and a population which relies mostly upon the motorbus for its services.

Licences.

The sixth recommendation of the Select Committee relates to the licensing of stage and hackney carriages being a duty of the county councils and the county borough councils. At the present time the licences are issued by the Metropolitan Police to cover the whole of the Metropolitan Police area.

The adoption of the sixth recommendation will create a very considerable number of licensing authorities and will make very difficult the securing of the necessary licences to work motorbuses in London as the routes extend from one borough into another, and there is scarcely a single route that is confined within the limits of one borough.

If it is intended by this recommendation to give power to each of the councils to restrict the number of licences there may he considerable divergencies of opinion as to the number of buses required, and the anomaly may arise of one council licensing more buses for a route than another council on the same route. Clearly this is an impracticable proposal.

As it is, when motorbuses run outside. the Metropolitan Police area there are difficulties as to the licences required to complete the routes, and in one or two cases already it has been necessary to break up a route to comply with the conditions imposed. If the number of licences to be issued for motorbuses in London is to be restricted it should be done by one central authority and not by a number of local or partial authorities.

The Accident Record of the Motorbuses.

Paragraph 75 deals with the question of the accident record of the motorbusee, and it is shown that since 1910 the fatalities have increased from 58.3 per bus to 62.6, but in the same period of time the number of miles run by our motorbuses has increased much more considerably. The increase in fatality is about 6 per cent., but the increase in mileage

run is about 20 per cent.. This therefore explains the discrepancy which exists between the figures as recorded by the police and printed in paragraph 75, and the further figures given in evidence by Mr. Stanley, and which are based upon

the number of miles run. It is quite clear that accidents must not be measured by the number of buses but by the services performed.

The Peril of the Motorbus.

The motorbus has been made the scapegoat for all the increased danger that there is in the .public streets, and yet of all the traffic in the streets the motorbus is the vehicle which is performing the greatest public service.

During thie year the traffic carried by the motorbuses will amount to some 750 millions of passengers.

These people have been carried from their homes to business, from business to their homes, and for pleasure. They have been taken out into the country for fresh air and recreation, and they have been taken to see shows and entertainments of all kinds.

All this has been done to the advantage of London. If the motorbus is to be throttled and restricted it is going to be to London's disadvantage, and the real peril of London is that it should be hound down to narrow ways and be prevented from expansion and free circulation.

Appeals from the County Council to the New Traffic Branch to be Set Up.

it may be thought that the provision of a means of appeal against the regulations to be Made by the county councils makes the proposal a fair one. But it is to be pointed out that it will occasion very great expense and considerable trouble to private interests if they are to take action in tho way of appeal upon all reel/awns which may be made inimical to their interests. lhe arrangementmay be turned into a purely vexatious one, and the position on the Board of Trade will he this :—

That the party making the regulations will be always in the position of plaintiff ; the party objecting to the regulations will alwa:„Is be in the position of defendant, and it will be strange if at some time the decision of the judge does not go against that party, even with the hest of cases. Why should not the traffic authority to be set up in this report have direct control of the traffic? There should he no need to go through a county council to get an independent and impartial authority.

Control of Traffic.

It is recognized that there must he some control of the traffic districts. There can be no question that this control

must he exercised through the police tip to the present time the police have had practically the sole control of the traffic, and it is to the police that questions of rules of the road, refuges, licensing of public vehicles, stopping-places of public vehicles, and all cognate questions are now referred. The proposals of the committee are to withdraw all this power from the police and confer it upon the county councils.

For reasons already stated the county councils cannot be impartial bodies. A desirable arrangement would seem to be that the police should continue with their present powers, and have them amplified so that they could determine routes, inspect time-tables, restrict the number of licences, and in many other ways make their control more effective. It is quite agreed that Sir Edward Henry and the police are not in favour of absolute powers of this kind being conferred upon them, as they consider it undesirable that they should come into conflict with any other substantial interest. But there would be no difficulty in referring matters from the police to some traffic authority, either such as was recommended by the 'loyal Commission on London Traffic, or snch as is recommended by the present report.


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