Children in Motor Coaches.
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AN obvious oversight in the second schedule of the Finance Act of 1920 (the scale of motor taxation) was recently rectified, by way of a circular letter from the Minister of Transport to the local licensing authorities, in which they were advised that the Minister had no objection to two young children being counted as one adult when determining whether the Excise regulations were being contravened by owners or drivers of hackney vehicles. If we have had one inquiry upon this subject, we should not be exaggerating if we say we have had hundreds, and, if the local licensing authorities have the information in their possession, we can only say that they are not passing it on to the people who have the most right to know—the owners of motor coaches and the organizers of excursion parties.
It is more' than likely, however, that the local licensing authorities have not had the opportunity of passing the information to these people. We can quite imagine that the owner of a coach, when making his application for registration of the vehicle on Form R.F.(8), would'observe among the. "definitions" the statement that the allowance for a seat must be 16 linear inches. As a matter of fact, three children can pack comfortably enough into 32 inches, and, as they pay little regard to comfort, they would be quite content to ride 64 in a 32-seater. The • allowance of 16 linear inches being definitely set out and the licenoe issued, the coach owner, when first • asked to quote for a party of children, would not, in 'nine cases out of ten, think of returning to the post office or the local licensing authority for the informa,tion as to what laxity is being shown, all over the 'country, in the application of this definition.
In the nine cases mentioned (and also in the tenth • case where only an evathve answer is received) he will write to The Commercial Motor. We put this point because the Ministry of Transport is not always , (it is—sometimes) alive to the need for the fullest publicity for these decisions, and, even now that the information is being slowly, disseminated, it is difficult to obtain a copy of the circular or to learn its exact terminology. From what has been conveyed to us; we imagine that the modification of the schedule is still of -the vaguest character. What, for instance, is the definition of a child'? The taxicab dri'ver's practice is to accept two children of 10 years or under at the fare of one adult; children under 12 years of age travel at half fare on the railways. In the absent* of official direction, commonsense must be brought into play, and the number of children, say, of 13 years and under who should be carried should be no more than shall give reasonably comfortable seating accommodation.
Extended Municipal Bus Services.
WE referred last week to the, applications of various local authorities for powers to run bus services beyond the limits of the areas under their jurisdiction, and expressed ourselves as being generally favourable to the granting of reasonable extended powers in the interests of the wider employment of the motor omnibus as against the tramcar. We may, however, return to the subject for the purpose of pointing out that increased powers of this kind should certainly not be granted without consideration, and should, in fact, only be given subject. to certain safeguards: In the first place, they should not be made available as a means of enabling a municipality to destroy established businesses run by individuals or companies. If these people are already providing the bulk of the necessary services, it should be incumbent on a municipality to give them the opportunity of completing the series of services before seeking powers to run in direct competition with them. Further, the powers should not be employed in an arbitrary manner to throttle future enterprise of individuals.
The difficulty is that the local authority is the licensing authority. Suppose that it has obtained ti owers to run buses to adjacent towns and villages, it may, by refusing to grant licences, strangle all competition and prevent many useful developments dependent on private enterprise. This really supports the old argument that the licensing authority should not itself be in competition with those to whom it may grant or refuse licences. One solution of the difficulty would be to change the licensing authorities, but, in all probability, this is not practical politics. The alternative seems to be to include in any Bill which gives extended running powers a clause providing that the municipality which possesses such powers may not refuse licences to others who may desire to run any public service along the same routes, so far as the municiPality's own area is concerned.
Here, again, there seems to be certain difficulties in the way of devising a satisfactory arrangement. Suppose that town A desires to run a service to an adjacent town B, passing on the way through the county area C. Now, the municipality, having made the necessary arrangements with B and C and obtained powers, can put its vehicles upon the road. Suppose, next, that someone else—operating, say, from B, as a ,centre—desires to include the town A in the routes which he will serve, A can upset all his calculations by refusing him licence to ply for hire within its area.
The position would be improved by the provision suggested above, but it still remains possible that the municipality A might get into touch with the county authority C and persuade the latter to refuse licences to the competing service. It would, therefore, seem to be necessary to provide that no authority which runs beyond its own area or permits a neighbouring authority to run vehicles through its area may withhold licences from competing concerns. c • These considerations are important, seeing that, as we have pointed out, the argument in favour of increased powers is that they would mean the extended use of motor vehicles. If they involve the suppression of local enterprise, their effect would be repressive instead of being advantageous, and the proposition would no longer be deserving of support.
Should Steel-studded Tyres be used on Taxis?
0 NE OF the requirements Of Scotland Yard before it will license :a, taxicab for service on the streets of London is that it must •be fitted with two rubber-treaded tyres and two steelstudded tyres; and these latter must be staggered.
More than one attempt has been made to get this regulation abolished, but without success. Why this should be so it is difficult to understand, as, in practically all other types of pneumatic-tyred vehicles which do most of their running on London streets, the steel-studded tyre is, to a great extent, going out of use, and, in fact, one of the largest manufacturers of pneumatic tyres recently decided to abandon the manufacture of this type. Years ago, before the streets of London were paved and cleaned as they are now, the steel-studded tread may have been necessary, as the studs were able to bite through the coating of mud in order to obtain a grip on the road surface underneath. Even then our own experience showed that the rubber non-skid tread was the better of the two types, and we laid certain ascertained facts before the chief manufacturers in this country. That its grip on the road surface is ample is shown by the fact that, if the brakes of a taxicab are applied, it is always the steel-studded tyre which whizzes round backwards, owing to the differential action, and in our opinion reduces the braking powers of the complete vehicle. It is quite possible that a, large percentage of the accidents recorded against taxicabs in the annual statistics issued by the Metropolitan Police is attributable to the compulsory use of steelstudded tyres, owing to their ineffectiveness whilst braking.
In view of these facts, it would appear to us that pressure ought to be brought to bear upon the authorities to waive a regulation which is antiquated and dangerous.
Apart from its non-skid qualities, the rubber tread usually has considerably longer life than the steelstudded tread. It also runs silently.
It is. quite possible that we have by no means reached finality with regard to the materials employed for surfacing our ,main thoroughfares. Granite setts have been found very satisfactory when employed on routes traversed by motor vehicles of all classes. Where the setts are arranged with mathematical precision, as is sometimes done, periodic vibrations are liable to be set up, but these may be broken if the setts are laid on the Klein flaster or random pattern.
The chief difficulty experienced. when granite setts are employed is that of horses slipping on the smooth, slightly rounded surfaces of the setts, but, as the use of the horse for= transport purposes daily grows less, this difficulty will automatically disappear.