CTAs to foster better buses for bulk supply to operators
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CONURBATION Transport Authorities will encourage improved designs of buses for supply in bulk, said the Minister of Transport on Monday. It was absurd and wasteful for scores of municipal transport managers to insist on their own specific design features.
Mrs. Castle, who was addressing the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, stressed that money alone could not solve the urban road problems. Mr. Marples had said this clearly when he was the responsible Minister.
No magic solutions to solve traffic congestion could be imposed centrally. In London the GLC was responsible and local authorities everywhere should work out their own detailed solutions.
She would shortly be calling for the submission of comprehensive traffic control plans from local authorities and would expect them to pay full regard to highway planning, traffic management, restraint and parking control and, particularly, public transport facilities.
Authorities which hoped to avoid awkward choices by going nap on the private car would not get generous aid from public funds to deal with the congestion their policy had created, Priority and support would go to the local authorities coming forward with realistic balance to plans.
Mrs. Castle said the Ministry recognized that no one yet knew the calibre of manpower needed to solve the urban traffic problem. The numbers and qualifications of traffic planners required for big cities and the adequacy of university training for these difficult problems was under review.
She discounted the panacea of a London traffic commissioner, and urged the fullest cooperation between city transport managers, engineers and planners in studying urban traffic problems. Her faith in democratic processes would fail if compartmental dealing prevented across-the-board co-operation.
Turning to possible technological solutions, Mrs. Castle said that automatic taxi trains— driverless taxis travelling on guided tracks— could contribute to city public transport problems and the idea was to be backed by a Ministry research contract. They might resemble bubble cars and passengers would pay by putting tickets into a slot. In rush hours they might form up into trains.
Another much-canvassed solution was the monorail. She was not opposed to monorail developments but there were many alternative proposals, though if the experts agreed that monorails were the answer the Government would not resist this.
In the new towns now envisaged or under construction public transport should unquestionably play a dominant role, in fact the whole town should be planned around the public transport system, said the Minister.