London Traffic.
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The report of the Royal Commission on London Traffic will be issued within the next few weeks, and its imminence rather detracts front the value which would otherwise attach to the interesting paper read last week before the Society of Engineers. The proposals contained in the contribution. of Messrs. Meik and Beer to the literature of the subject possess some features of novelty and the great disadvantage of large initial expense. In discussing the question of improvements in London traffic, it is inherently inevitable that the very magnitude of the task involves issues which are calculated to cause the various authorities concerned to hesitate over the adoption of any broad plan, much as we see nothing done in the matter of old age pension schemes because of the huge cost. There is something to be drawn, by way of parallel, from the scheme advanced by "The Spectator," in. whose pages it was suggested some years ago that, rather than to do nothing at all, the Government might begin by granting an old age pension to every man and woman who had reached the age of So years. The immediate and obvious objection is that such a course would be of very little use, because it would only touch a small percentage of those who should be benefited by a larger scheme. But any system which admits of small beginnings is free Front the grave risk of expense wrongly incurred, and which cannot be recovered, in. addition to the avoidance of delays over its inception. In view of the financial responsibility which the London County Council has assumed in respect of the Strand to Holborn improvement, where the interest charges amount to £100,0420 a year, compared with an income of only ,4-25,000 a year at the present time, we should think that any remedial measure, for a lessening of the evils of the congestion of street traffic in our great Metropolis, which admits of a gradual extension from reasonable beginnings, should be very carefully weighed. The great point of interest to us is that no system of transport, whether for passengers or goods, possesses this virtue more than motor haulage, and we are inclined to think that the
publication in extensu of Messrs. Meik and Beer's paper— or of any others in the same strain—will serve indirectly to send home the advantages of motor omnibuses and wagons more than to advance their own particular schemes. An extended use of self-propelled vehicles involves neither an enormous expenditure on the purchase of frontages nor the dislocation of traffic for months together; the cost of the former is seldom fairly charged, and that of the latter is certainly never included in tramway estimates ! The roads require no tearing up to suit motor traffic, whilst the elimination of so many horses front the streets practically doubles the available space, and thereby renders unnecessary the huge outlay on street widening which is involved by the proposals to which we refer, and by many others of a similar character. We do not say that there are no street improvements which modern conditions call for in London and many large provincial cities, but we emphatically protest against the present inclination to set up tramway extensions as a fetish to be worshipped regardless of cost.
Losing a Dividend.
The necessity for closely watching every purchase of stores and incidental expenses in connection with a business is nowhere more readily appreciated than in the use of motor vehicles for public passenger service or other road-earrying purposes. The ownership of a large number of vehicles by any company renders a small additional profit or saving on each unit of great importance when multiplied and shown in the monthly working statement. The account which appears in this number describing the methods of handling petroleum spirit, from the moment of its arrival in the tank steamers to its delivery at the depot of any using concern, serves to point a moral in this direction, it is probably not realised by everyone that the difference in cost between petroleum spirit in 40-gallon steel barrels and the same commodity in 2-gallon cans amounts to more than one-half of a five per cent, dividend on the normal capital of a company running motor omnibuses. To our mind the plea of the public safety is one that will not stand examination here, because the vehicles themselves carry large quantities of the spirit in tanks attached to the frames or bodies, which supply is ample for a day's work, and which certainly—if at all—constitutes a greater element of danger than can arise over the refilling under proper supervision at the running shed. The London County Council is, at the present time, insistent upon strict obedience to the by-law requiring 2-gallon sealed cans to be used for motor omnibus supplies, which may soon mean a shortage in tin cans of that kind, if motor omnibuses go on increasing as they promise to do! Let us suppose, for sake of argument, that there will be only sou motor omnibuses on the streets of London by March next, each using an average of 18 gallons a day. This yields a daily consumption of 9,000 gallons of petroleum spirit, which will require a daily turn-over of 4,930 cans. Allowing for delays in handling, collection, delivery, transport, cleansing, and refilling, the supply of petroleum spirit to the London motor omnibus services alone will call for the manipulation of some 30,000 cans a week We will not enter into the cubic measurement of these packages, because it is to raise the specific point of stores cost that we make this first reference to a subject which we are con
winced will work its own salvation before the movement is very much older. Taking the capital account of any reasonable undertaking to stand at ,‘i,otreo for each motor omnibus owned, the payment of a 5 per cent. dividend means, approximately, jf,i per week for its discharge. Now the actual extra cost represented to users by the purchase of petroleum spirit in 2-gallon cans, with the additional labour involved, and the heavy cartages on the packages, without any allowance for possible damage to the tins and cases, amounts to not less than ice per gallon more than if the spirit were purchased in steel barrels. On the basis of 18 gallons of spirit per day consumed by an omnibus, we have a total of 126 gallons per week, which is equivalent to los. 6d. in money, or, on an average working of 50 weeks to the year, £26 55. per annum. This, it will be observed, exceeds a per cent, dividend on the capital value of the plant, and. we arc satisfied that, when competition becomes more keen, the needless augmentation of the petrol bill by id, a gallon will not be endured.
Road Maintenance.
The old story of experts who differ is being repeated in respect of motor traffic, both light and heavy. It is little short of impossible to reconcile the views that are expressed by road surveyors in various parts of the country, the only common ground appearing to be the belief that pneumatic lyres loosen the binding material from unrolled roads :it speeds of about twenty miles per hour or higher velocities. But even here there is no real agreement. The surveyor of a large south-eastern county says he has " no hesitation in stating that the damage caused to the roads by these vehicles is infinitesimal." On the other hand, a most competent county surveyor in the north-west inclines to the exact converse—" as a rule the inflated tyres of the quicklydriven motorcar do quite as much damage to the surface of our strong roads as the heavier traction-engine, by pulling up the binding and so loosening the rest." After a perusal of considered opinions which have been uttered or put in writing by a majority of our county surveyors in England. one is bound to confess that the result is inconclusive. [Jimstone roads appear to yield the heaviest detritus 'leek quickly, and the nuisance of a loosened crust is ccrtainly greatest •independently of the class of road metal employed --where the percentage of binding material is highest.
Passing to the question of heavy vehicular traffic in which we are more interested, there is again the same marked diversity of view. A few surveyors estimate the annual extra damage to their main roads at ,‘.25 per mile, whilst a large number places it at about ;65 for that length. The explanation of such divergent calculations is found in one or more of five factors—(a) the amplitude of the original foundations; (b) the influence of adjoining levels and trees ; (c) the general engineering construction as regards consolidation and drainage; (d) the standard of maintenance established during the past decade; and (e) the actual increase of traffic. One fact, which remains clear and outstanding, is that some county authorities who talk most glibly about the enormous increase of cost are unable to substantiate it by their votes for road maintenance! Other authorities, of whom we might quote the Lancashire County Council as an
enlightened example, are spending more money and are securing thereby an immunity from litigation and heavy annual maintenance charges hereafter. It is obviously useless for county councils generally to ignore the necessity for strengthening their main roads, and proper construction— once effected is a real economy before the end of three ears because there follows so great a reduction in the repairs. Patching up a weak road is comparable to tinkering with an out-of-date muter wagon. Annoying petty disbursements are practically endless, with satisfaction neither for the builders nor the users, until the unsuitable instrument of commerce is discarded and One fitted to existing requirements is introduced. Adequate roads can be made without difficulty, though not, unfortunately, without expense, and many thousands of miles of strong main roads, built according to the principles of Macadam and Telford, exist to-day. Further, it is demonstrable, at least in respect of main roads, that nearly all the friction and claimsat-law which arise over damage to highways by tractionengine and, sometimes, by motor wagon traffic are due to faulty and negligent construction of the strips of road in question. Of course, if a man deliberately smashes up a by-road in the country exclusively to benefit his own pocket, we see no occasion to sympathise with him if he fails to cover himself for that risk. But main road traffic is a different matter. It is of National importance and of universal concern to the Empire. The lamentable flaws in our present system of administration allow a few hundred yards of unbottomed road (sic) to ruin the chain of connection between two towns, in the first instance, and between large adjacent areas, or even any two parts of the country, if we will only take a broader view of the matter. Thus, as is within our own experience of running motor wagons in actual commercial service, contiguous lengths of main road have perfectly withstood the identical traffic which, admittedly, hopelessly ruined a scandalously imperfect intermediate length of the same main road! To allow weak links of this character is to bring down the level of efficiency in accordance with the old adage we need not quote.
Wherein lies the remedy? We believe that the steady march of eelf-propulsion as a means of road locomotion in this country is slowly educating public opinion—the real arbiter in such matters. Britain is conservative to a degree and loves nothing in a hurry. This national trait is not without its recommendations, but it often involves sacrifices on the pare of thosc who act as pioneers. Commercial motoring has nothing to fear. Its vital bearing upon the daily needs of our population, whether for goods distribution or passenger conveyance, has already, after a bare five years of practical use, gained too firm a hold upon the consciences end convictions of thinking men for any retrogression. And that public opinion favours the assumption by the Treasury of a large share of the annual charges for main roads is becoming more evident day by day. We hear it from the man in the street—the ratepayer—from the local authorities, and from highway users. It is only a question of a few years before some method will be evolved, which must commend itself to all concerned, whereby the Chancellor of the Exchequer can assume at least the cost of excess wear due to the circulation of " through " traffic.