London's New Motorbus.
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THE TECHNICAL portion of the details of the NS type of bus introduced on the London streets three days ago, appearing in this issue of The Commercial Motor, is, at Lord Ashfield's express wish, as brief as is consistent with giving an outline of the features of the chassis.
One hears from different sources of alleged chassis details of a, more or less sensational character, but the statements i will, on comparison with the authorized information given by us, be found want-. ing. The reasons for this are simple ; in the first place, the final design differs materially from the results of early efforts to secure the low floor level and the low centre of gravity, and secrecy with regard to those early efforts has not been maintamed; and, in the second place, the directors of the L.G.0.0. feel justified in aiming at obtaining some adequate recompense for the enterprise and cost of producing the vehicle before giving such facilities as might be useful to others who wish. to follow in their footsteps. The first complete details of the new chassis will be found in The Commercial Motor at an early date.
The new bus seats only 50 passengers, which is fewer by four than the number accommodated by the S-type bus. But wheel arch intrusion costs two seats, and, with 52 people on board, the rear axle weight would be exceeded by about 3 cwt. Whether a certain amount of latitude will be officially allowed in this matter we are unable to say.
It is the intention of the company to turn out 50 of these buses per week from now onwards, and they will be put into service on those routes where it is evident that they are most needed, in order to meet traffic requirements. At first, an order for 500 was contemplated, but we understand that the supply will be continued until all the services are covered with sufficient vehicles to meet those requirements. This sounds like severe competition, but it is obvious . that the public will benefit by the provision of such adequate services, and it is our constant asseveration that. the provision of facilities results in an automatic growth of traffic and the development of the travel habit.
One-man Control for Steam Wagons.
I.
N OUR recent article dealing with ways in which road transport costs could be lowered in order • to counter railway rate reductions, we drew attention to the need for dispensing, wherever possible, with the second man, by so facilitating loading 015 and unloading, both at the terminal points and at stops en route, that his services would not be required. Our remarks, however, applied only to the electric vehicle or that using petrol as fuel, and not to the majority of steam wagons in which the design of the control gear is such that it would be almost, or quite, impossible for one man to attend both to the boiler and engine controls and to the steering. There is little reason why steam wagons should be designed so that the second man is needed : this is proved by the fact that in a few steam wagons his services have already been dispensed with, and in spite of this, these particular wagons appear to be quite as safe and as easily controlled, by the one man as are others by two. It may not be stretching a point to say that' it is even safer, provided the means for stoking, etc., are so simple that the driver is not-forced to divert too much attention from the steering of the vehicle while he is performing other functions. Where the control of a wagon is divided, there cannot be that harmonious response to thought which occurs in the individual. Satisfactory driving, particularly in traffic, often involves speeding-up or reducing speed at a moment's notice, but, where the steersman cannot himself control the engine, there must. always be a lag between what he desires and the carrying out of his wishes.
Needed Reform in the Regulations Governing Bus Construction. .
IT IS not right to regard, as some do, the original regulations under which buses are licensed for service in London as immutable. Two circumstances render them unstable—the march of mechanical invention and the development of the travel habit in the people. Hence' regulations laid down some years ago are quite out of date to-day.
We are now referring to the restrictions imposed by the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis upon dimensions, weights, etc., of buses, and we feel that, in our argument, we have the sympathy of the Commissioner and the Public Carriage Department of Scotland Yard, because they showed the utmost readiness to agree to the increase in seating accommodation provided in the K-type and, later, in the 6-type buses. We think the time has now come when the permitted width of buses should be increased to the full 7 ft. 6 ins. allowed by the Use and Construction Order of 1904, and also for permission to be given to experiment with coverings to the •upper deck. We have advocated the latter reform for some time, and now the opportunity presents itself in the production of a new type of bus with a very low centre of gravity. London suffers the discomfort of a considerable rainfall, which seems, for some inscrutable reason, to occur chiefly at the peak hours of traffic movement ! It is not uncommon, in the course of the seven or eight months of wet weather which forms part of a Londoner's year, to see a bus with a few stalwarts standing disconsolate upon the upper deck, unable to be seated, and exposed to the icy rain. Other buses pass with unoccupied seats on the upper deck, whilst would-be passengers stand waiting under umbrellas at street corners. The engineering staff of the L.G.O.C. has now done its part to remedy this state of things, and it is for Scotland Yard to give its sanction to an experiment with such covers.
The Value of Road Mechanical Transport in Laundry Work.
1 ,N VIEW of the fact that the Laundry Exhibition is now being held at the Agricultural Hall, Islington, London, N.1, it is appropriate that we should refer to the use of motor vehicles for dealing with collection and delivery in this particular business, and we do so in an article in this issue.
Ever since the motor vehicle became a practical proposition, it has been favoured by the large laundries, and its use soon spread, even to the smallest—and this in spite of the fact that the conditions of service are rather peculiar and tend towards rushes at the -week-end, although, fortunately, fairly successful efforts have, in recent years, been made to overcome this undesirable feature and to spread the work more evenly over the week. However, the commercial motor has always proved vastly superior to other means of transport and, from inquiries which we have made amongst users, we have found that, in every instance, a return to horse transport would be considered as a very retrograde step and, in the few instances where horses are still employed, this is generally because the merits of the motor are not properly understood. In the cases of the larger laundries, great increases have been made in the areas covered. These have in some instances, proved too great even for the electric vehicle, and where this type is employed it usually forms nart of a mixed fleet. It is thought by many not fully cognizant with the facts that the mechanical transport vehicle cannot satisfactorily be employed in work which involves a large number of stops, as is the case with the laundries, whose vehicles often have to make as many as 100 halts per day, and yet we find users amongst them_ who state that they could not possibly do their work with any other means of transport, and that if they did dispense with their motors their areas of collection and delivery would have to be greatly restricted, and the customers could not be attended to with anything like the same, regularity.
Where the motor gains its most important advantage is in its speed between the stops. If the mileage is small, then it could not show its advantages so fully, but, where the area covered is large, often with comparatively long distances. between the stops, even though these be numerous, it is not long before the new user is convinced of his wisdom in employing this more modern means of transport.
Cycle Rear Lights a Vital Need. • IN VIEW of the proved need for the adoption of " safety first" measures and PI the success which has attencled every reasonable effort on the part of the Safety First Council to prevent injury and loss of life, there ought to be no further delay in the introduction of the promised Bill which, inter alia, shall compel cyclists on the road at night to display a lighted rear lamp.
The attitude of the motor driver is logical. He says, "If the moving cyclist, who 'is difficult to see at night time, is not to indicate his presence on the road .by means of a light, then powerful headlights are more than ever necessary in order to discover his presence." . On the other hand, the attitude of the cyclist is illogical and inconsiderate, for he finds no insuperable difficulty in keeping in good condition—and alight—the lamp he requires to light his way.
Our own experience on the road shows that, in the country districts, about 30 per cent. of cyclists display a rear light, thus clearly demonstrating the fact that a large number disagree with and do not follow the advice of those who noisily advocate opposition to what any reasonable person would consider a wise and simple precaution. Commercial goods vehicles are rarely equipped with powerful headlights, and their drivers, even at slow speed, are kept at constant strain in the endeavour' to discover the unindicated cyclist ; they cannot be expected to rely upon the light from their lamps being reflected in the inadequate reflector lenses which some people advocate as substitutes for rear lamps. There is no question about the need for rear lamps on cycles, and it is the bounden duty of those who aim at the safeguarding of the interests of road users to press for Parliamentary action in the matter.