IMPROVING TAXICAB BODY DESIGN.
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A New Feature which Ensures Greater Comfort and Safety for the Passenger.
IT is singular, when a certain form of construction has been religiously followed for some time and has proved more or less efficient in general practice, that it should, for a time, become recognized as an accepted and irrevocable standard of design. Then someone wakes up to the circumstance and, often, a change that is as revolutionary as it is unexpected is brought about. It is certainly true to say that many of the features to be found on goods and passenger vehicles continue to be utilized for the very reason that they have never been deemed other than perfectly satisfactory. Yet how many of them are capable of considerable improvement?
What has sufficed in the past is not necessarily good enough for the future. A ease in point, which gives support to thiscontention, is the emergency door for saloon buses and coaches which, until it regrettable disaster brought it into the -limelight of criticism, had always been thought to provide a sufficiently ready means of exit in the event of any untoward happening. How false were these beliefs is now a matter of general knowledge, and the result is that coachbuilders and chassis makers have given considerable attention to the design of an emergency exit which shall be absolutely efficient and practical under all conditions of use.
This concentration of effort has been rendered necessary by the insistence of many licensing authorities up and down the country upon the provision of an exit which is capable of easy and instantaneous operation. Their demands in this direction have now, perhaps, been better met than ever before so that the risks of failure at the crucial moment have been reduced.
We are led to write in the foregoing strain after having examthed the merits of a new taxicab which has recently appeared on the American streets, and which embodies an unorthodox design of
door in its construction. A glance at the illustrations reproduced on this page will indicate that the disposition of the door giving access to the passenger interior is a complete departure from the conventional. Instead of a door on each
side, a single door arranged at an angle to the driver's seat is preferred, and this certainly gives many advantages.
In the first place it makes for rigid construction in the superstructure of the body, for the greater the number of doors the Vveaker the framework, or the more urgent the need for the use of strengthening plates -or heavier woodwork. Then again, being hung from a central pillar, stress on the hinges and framing is not so great, so that distortion is less likely to occur. Moreover, by the use of a door that folds inwards towardA the centre-line of the vehicle no risk is run by its inadvertent opening. which cannot be said for the ordinary cab with its side doors.
Perhaps the greatest value of this arrangement is that it makes for safety and gives the maximum comfort and convenience to the occupants of the interior and to the chauffeur, who can control the opening and shutting of the door without the need for leaving his seat. The danger to other road users through doors flying open is nonexistent.
Another feature is the aperture in the glass which enables the passenger to pay his fare before leaving the interior, the
amount of which is clearly shown on a taximeter fixed on the dashboard and facing the doorway. Thus a greater degree of privacy is afforded and the need for discussion and payment of the fare from the kerbside are avoided.
This new taxicab body is the production of the Bauer Manufacturing Co., of Chicago. The interior is particularly roomy and well-appointed and, although it is not possible to carry bulky luggage alongside the driver's scat, a reasonable amount can be accommodated inside without discomfort to the occupants.