THE OWNER-DRIVEN MOTORBUS.
Page 8
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An Opening in London tor the Jitney type of Public Carriage.
By "Vectis."
WE DO NOT KNOW how much real importance is to be attached to the statements recently appearing in the Press to the effect that the owner-driven motor omnibus is soon to appear in the London streets. If this vehicle, when it arrives, is merely to be a kind of modern edition of the old pirate omnibus, we should be better off without it. if, on the other hand, it is to represent a serious attempt to supply a vehicle for public use somewhere intermediate in. carrying capacity, speed and cost, between, the omnibus and the taxicab, then we believe that, with proper organization, it has -a promising future. We Suggest that the thing can only be made a success if the owner-driver refrains from attempting direct competition upon equal terms with the London General Omnibus Go.
The living of a small man fighting a great corporation is a precarious business. In this particular sphere he would be literally -driven from pillar to post. So soon as the company is in a position to put on as many buses as it pleases, which will we hope be in : . , ' the near future, the individual trying-to establish
himself on any particular route will very promptly find the company's service on that route enlarged, until the profit of the private owner becomes infinitesimal. If he moves to another route, the, same 'thing will happen again. Moreover, hehas to face all the disadvantages of the old pirate driver, even if he does not share all his vices. In the old days the pirate was undoubtedly slower than the company's vehicles, because he would not move on while there. was a chance of picking up an additional fare,0 He only lived at all by charging exorbitant prices : exorbitant, that is to say, in view of the class of service he gave. The business was inherently based on a swindle, inasmuch as the vehicles were made to look as much like the coinpanss's buses as possible and more than half of the people who boarded them only patronized the pirate by accident. The slowness of the pirate bus was a direct consequence of its freedom from the company's regulations. On a company's vehicle, the passenger knows where he is going an what he will have to pay. He thenfore prefers it to the pirate. consequently, the natural course of the latter is to pick up the leavings at crowded points. This inevitably involves delays and slows down the average rate of traVel, rendering the pirate verucle more unpopular than ever.
The Utility of the Jitney.
. Our own idea of the owner-driven bus is something far more akin to the "jitney," which we know has been successfully used in very many towns abroad. We take it that the " jitney " of London would be a comparatively. srna)1 vehicle carrying, perhaps, n or 15 passengers. The fares would be higher than those of the ordinary omnibus ; so also would be the speeds. Even if a higher maximum speed were not permitted, the light vehicle would maintain a better average speed in traffic. Further, it could increaseits average speed by making fewer stoppages.
It would, however, be quite necessary for all the owner-drivers to form themselves from the first into an association, not necessarily for the sharing of profits—which would probably only result finally in the formation of a company—but for the purpose of framing regulations and imposing Denalties if these were broken. The association would then settle the fares to he charged and would limit the number of "jitneys " permitted to be put en anyparticular route. Preferably, all the vehicles would be clearly B30 marked in some way to show that their owners belonged tothe association and would abide by its rules. This would give the public confidence.
The vehicles would then take up a position somewhat similar to that occupied in the old days by the express omnibuses which used to run before London was honeycombed with tubes. The fares would not be in penny stages, but there would be a minimum fare of, say, fourpence or sixpence, with somewhat higher fares, rising perhaps by threepence a stage, for the remainder of the journey. The buses would run from fixed points at fixed times. They would at least be extremely well patronized in the mornings and evenings, and possibly special fares could be charged for those journeys. We see no reason why people should not be allowed to take season tickets for certain seats on certain journeys, paying the full fare for the whole distance and, of course, sacrificing their seats if late for the bus. We think there are many people who, for example, would willingly pay is. each way to be conveyed from, say, Swiss Cottage to some point near their offices, somewhere between Piccadilly Circus and Liverpool Street.
Catering for the Regular Passenger.
It would be very pleasant to -know that, if one arrived punctually at Charing Cross at 6 o'clock in the evening, one's bus would appear within two or three minutes and a reserved seat upon it would be waiting for occupation. The scheme would appeal very strongly to large numbers of men who work regular hours. To those whose hours are irregular it would, of course, appeal far less.
We think in many eases all the seats would be booked from sogiewhere quite near to the starting point. Take the example already mentioned of a bus starting from Swiss Cottage. We suggest there should be only two or three points of call at convenient junctions of the Finehley Road, the last being somewhere near Baker Street. After that the next stop would be Piccadilly Circus ansl, even beyond that point, the stopping places need not be unduly frequent. It would have to be against the rules for drivers or conductors to oblige regular customers, by stopping at "unusual points.
During the day, we suggest that the buses would ply for comparatively short routes stretching not more than about three miles either way from the centre of the West-End shopping district. Here, again, we believe the rather high fares would, if anything, encourage custom. There are plenty of ladies who will not go to the continual expense of taxicabs, but who would be glad to have the use of something more in the nature of a private vehicle than the ordinary omnibus. In fact; the extra fare could hardly be called an extravagance on the part of a woman wearing good clothes' particularly of the light summer variety, liable to be injured by contact with a seat previously occupied by someone whose business or garments might not have been of the cleanest. The vehicle would, in fact, develop into a sort of firstclass Pullman bus. The operating costs would not be appreciably lower than those of the ordinary omnibus, but the takings ought to be very considerable and in some cases substantially larger than those possible to the company's buses. The whole thing would, however, be killed if each owner-driven bus operated quite independently, charging fares according to the conductor's own fancy, stopping wherever the driver pleased, And varying its routes and time-table without notice.