Will Congestion Dominate Movement of Transport?
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rrl-IE record of road transport since I the war began has been a record of gigantic waste—not by road transport, but of it," declared Mr. Boyd Bowman, of the British Road Federation, when he recently addressed members of the Glasgow Rotary Club.
Mr. Bowman said that,following the policy. carried out at the beginning of the war, road transport was cut down by means of fuel rationing and the diversion to Service purposes of large numbers of vehicles: It was theri decided that, so far as possible, goods must be carried by rail. In recent months, however, it had become clear that fuel supplies were more adequate than was at first feared, and that, with the increased demands of the war upon all transport, the more rigid systems were unable to cope with the traffic. There was a greater volume of goods coming into the country, there were changed circumstances due to the moving of the population, there were large armies at home and some disturbance from enemy action; all these together imposed an immense strain on the transport resources available. Whilst the calling upon road transport to give, greater assistance was a welcome ctange in policy, there were serious difficulties, becauSe the power of road transport had been so reduced since the commencement of the war.
The speaker urged the mobilization of every vehicle and the retention of drivers and repair workers. The danger point, not far ahead, was that the transport systems of the country might be so jammed that at some places congestion might dominate movement.