Refuges or Tramrails ?
Page 2
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Advocates_ of traffic reform, inclusive of the recent House of Commons Committee on London traffic accidents and the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, wish to see more refuges put up in traffic thoroughfares, and in this view we concur, subject to fair intervals between the refuges. Has it occurred to either of these parties that the recommendation is irreconcilable with the extension of tramways? We wish to direct attention to this fact, because we believe it is one that has so far esc.aped the attention which it deserves.
It is only in the widest of thoroughfares, which type of highway we regret to say is not to be found generally in the central zones of the capital of the Empire, that a wide section of the carriage-way can, now or later, be allotted to tramways to such an extent as to permit, in addition, the placing of refuges between the two inner rails. We look upon this factor in the situation as one which must be treated with seriousness when proposals for the extension of any line of tramway farther into the centre of London are under consideration—if that day conic. In the few eases, of which we may cite two in Rosebery Avenue, close to the Holborn Town Hall, where a refuge is provided between the tramway tracks, it is necessary to allow each pair of rails to diverge outwards, in order to leave the necessary area free between the tracks. In one particular case, it has been necessary to establish a compulsory stop on each side of the refuge, and also, at times' to have an extra traffic constable on duty. Quite apart from the question of further undue use of the highway by tramcars, any increase in the .number of such track divergences will be very dangerous indeed to ordinary wheeled traffic., because drivers of the latter are likely thereby to be crushed by the sudden closing in upon them or a ponderous electric vehicle.