GREATER LONDON TRAFFIC CONTROL.
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The L.C.C. has asked the Government to hold an inquiry into a proposal for
centralizing the chief municipal services of Greater London. In its report which led the Council to come to this decision, the Local Goverrrment Committee refers to the question of transport, pointing out that the means of locomotion and trans port in London have been the subject of several inquiries, and the reports resulting therefrom agree in laying stress on the fact that the question cannot be ade quately dealt with except by an authority having jurisdiction over a greater area than the administrative county of London. The Royal Commission on London Traffic (1993-1995) r& ported as followa One of the most important features of the problem of London locomotion is the movement of the population from the suburbs towards the centre every morning and back again in the afternoon and evening, so that in any general examination of the means of locomotion and transport required to wet the wants of the public, the area taken into consideration must include the district in which persons dwell, who, for the purpose of their work or business, move every day into and out of the central portions of the metro polis, and must be wider than that contained in the administrative county of London.
The area with which we propose to deal in the .present report is that of
the citf of London and the metropolitan police district. . . It will be convenient to speak of it as " Greater London." . . .
A large number of persons who come to London every day, or very frequently, reside at a greater distance than that which we have indicated, and the area within which special measures are necessary will continue to grew as the population increases, and the inhabitants .tend more and more to reside in the outlying districts, coming daily to their work or business in the central area, and returning in the evening. . .
1300 . . . The late Metropolitan Board of Works and the London County Council have done useful work, but these bodies never possessed sufficient authority nor dealt with a sufficiently wide area.
The Commission also pointed out that the main thoroughfares leading from,
Landon to the adjoining counties had never been laid out with reference to any general plan and were in Many re spects unsatisfactory, and they recommended that the building laws and by laws made thereunder in "Greater London" outside the administrative county of London should, so far as is practicable, be made uniform.
The Commission recommended the establishment of a Traffic Board with jurisdiction over "Greater London."
The Select Committee on Motor Traffic (1913) also commented on the difficulties of solving the problem of London traffic by reason of the" fact that powers and duties are at present scattered, dupli cated, and incomplete. The committee recommended the establishment of a new Traffic Branch of the Board of Trade, which should be. charged with the duty of examining and reporting on all schemes icelating to London traffic (i.e., traffic in the metropolitan area) pre sented to Parliament, and should actively concern itself with the traffic problems of London, working in har
mony with the various existing bodies responsible for the various areas, con
cerning the develOpment of through traffic and other matters in which common action or agreemenb is advisable. It was proposed that powers and responsibilities in the matter should be entrusted to the county councils and the el-pay borough councils.
The Select Committee on Transport (Metropolitan Area), 1919, reports as follows
Your committee desire . . . to put on record .the one outstanding fact which . . . discloses the full and adequate reason for the demoralisation of traffic in Greater London. It is the absence of a supreme Traffic Authority for Greater London possessingexecu tive powers to control, co-ordinate, and initiate, and to safeguard and--fur
ther public interests. The immediate creation by Parliament of a London Traffic Authority can alone remedy the present intolerable conditions.
Your committee therefore put in the forefront of their report as the para mount recommendation which governs the entire utility of their work the immediate creation of a supreme Greater London Traffic Authority. They recommend its establishment, not as a step which may be taken when opportunity offers, but as a vital measure of the most immediate necessity.
The authority should exercise its pow`ersover the Metropolitan Police Area.
The committee states that if any further proof were needed that an area much greater than the administrative county of London niust be considered in connection with the main roads leading out of and into/London, reference may be made to the conference convened by the President of the Local Government Board on November 25th, 1913, to consider the question of arterial road communication. in " Greater London." Representatives or the various local authorities in that area and of societies and associations interested were invited to this conference, which resulted in the passing of specific recommendations for the construction of important arterial and connecting roads throughout the whole area represented. More recently, too, an association, known as the -"Metropolitan Municipal Tramways Council" has been formed, consisting of representatives of metropolitan municipal authorities owning and working tramways and/or motor vehicles. The chief object of this association is the discussion of the question of passenger traffic in and around London, and the taking of joint action to promote the interests of the various undertakings concerned. The association is composed of representatives of the Council and of the municipal tramway authorities in the out-county districts of Bexley, Croydon, East Ham, Erith, Ilford, Leyton, Walthamstow, and West Ham.