More togetherness wanted
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• Better understanding between the engineers who build, highways and the engineers who build trucks and buses was called for on Tuesday by Mr John Dickson-Simpson, manager of Transport Press Services, when he addressed a meeting of the Institution of. Highway Engineers in Nottingham. They should, he said, try to educate one another; and spend less time growling at each Other from opposite corners.
The speaker stressed that the bulk of long-distance freight already travelled by rail — a figure masked by statistics such as the 80 per cent of freight tonnage going by road. So much of the latter was short-distance. The effect of putting extra traffic on rail might .relieve the trunk roads but it enforced a big increase in the number of lorries in the very place where congestion was worst — urban roads.
Mr Dickson-Simpson criticized the lack of foresight shown in some urban highway and shop planning, especially the awkwardness of turns which had to be tackled by big vehicles. Supermarkets, he said. consumed goods in previously unheard-of quantities and 20-ton trucks were needed to keep them supplied. Yet architects provided inadequate rear-loading access and service roads were commonly too narrow and twisting. He spoke of a situation in Birmingham's suspended-level shopping centre where artics cannot be turned after ascending the spiral access ramp and have to he reversed out —"it is a cheek to call for such exhibitions of the skills of lorry drivers". ,