How will we cope with more freight?
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AMA conference told: more rational distribution schemes needed in UK by John Darker, AMBIM
EACH PERSON in Great Britain generates 35 to 40 tons of freight traffic a year. And what is more, freight tonnages — and waste disposal — can be expected to increase with growing affluence.
This was a message spelt out by Sir Dan Pettit, chairman of the National Freight Corporation, to the recent transport conference of the influential Association of Metropolitan Authorities at Birmingham. He told the conference that stopping the world and getting off was an elltest solution and no good for ordinary people.
Sir Dan said that more rational distribution schemes, such as that introduced by Marks and Spencer, which had cut down the number of vehicles delivering to stores from 120 to 20 a day were commended.
Dutch experience
He had some reservations on the merits of transhipment depots and thought Dutch ex perience was not very relevant to British conditions since there was not much in-town delivery work undertaken from these depots. The recent Chichester review had concluded that a transhipment depot would cost more than the likely environmental gain.
Consolidation, said Sir Dan,
will be organised by the transport industry itself. He outlined
the problems inseparable from night deliveries to shops and commended the caged delivery concept on which some work had been done.
Lorry routes, thought Sir Dan, could offer some environmental advantages but it was important that vehicle mileages were not unduly inflated and he urged local authorities not to try to do too much too quickly.
Concluding, Sir Daniel made a strong plea for a pragmatic approach with the greatest pos sible collaboration between local authorities and road haulage associations. He suggested it
might be desirable to give lorries preference over cars, The
AMA was a member of the Lorries for the Environment Committee and he hoped some reference would be made to its work in the consultative document.
Sir Dan dealt with many questions, He stressed that even if rail freight traffic were doubled the environment would not be 'helped appreciably in view of the annual increase in road freight traffic.
He commended the Freightliner system with its modern developments — mini-terminals, SCIDS container system, etc— and he agreed with several questioners that the siting of Freightliner depots was not always as sensible as it should have been. In Hull, for example, Sir Dan quoted the siting on the far side of the town, away from the docks, as absurd. This Hull siting meant that rail could not possibly compete with road haulage on journeys to Hull.
Replying to a questioner who quoted a Leyton resident near the Freightliner depot, as saying: "All those . . . lorries should be on the Mil." Sir Dan said the Community Land Act, whatever its merits for local government, had dealt a grievous blow to NFC companies who might wish to dispose of properties. Road transport in the past 30 years had been called upon to bale out a land-use system based on 19th century ideas.
Asked whether a strict landuse system would facilitate a move of traffic to rail and thus cheapen transport, Sir Dan said • he was not a " dirigiste." He was not in favour of too strong directives being given, but authorities must expect a degree of constraint upon their planning.
To a questioner asking for a forecast of the number of large vehicles in future, and the prospects of reversion to rail to save energy, Sir Dan said there was a study in hand by the Energy Ministry which included transport mode effects. He was not convinced that rail was necessarily a better conserver of energy resources. A crucial factor with any mode was return loading and it was no use sending traffic to Scotland by rail if return loads by rail were much less readily obtainable than with road transport.
Sir Dan added that the railways' new TOPS system of wagon identification would locate rail wagons, •but it would not produce any extra traffic automatically. if a train-load of ,whisky were hijacked, this could
involve a loss of perhaps half a million pounds, as against E40,000 with a lorry-load. The railways would be wise to compete on their strong ground and not otherwise.
Integration
On possibilities of integration of services, Sir Dan said it made sense to do this with parcels and smalls traffic in remote areas of Wales, such as Machynlleth, or Galloway in Scotland. There could be common services including the Post Office, NFC, even private hauliers. Another idea for rural services was for combined freight/passenger vehicles taking services—maybe even a fish and chip shop— to homes in dispersed districts.
Summing up the AMA's view of its role in public transport policy-making, ClIr K. J. Woolmer said the AMA must make itself more credible if it sought to be a true partner with government. Liaison between authorities was dismayingly low and a move towards more centralisation of discussions of all transport matters would help.
However, let us return for a while to the remarks of Mr Terry Beckett, Ford's chairman, which I mentioned last week.
Mr Beckett reviewed other power sources— steam, rotary, electric and diesel — and he suggested that the electric car looked promising in theory. Ford's battery research had been concerned with the sodiumsulphur battery concept, "still regarded as a possible candidate for electric vehicle propulsion" though still no more than a laboratory device.
Even granted a breakthrough on batteries, there remained the overall thermal inefficiency of the electric vehicle—a serious disadvantage in a fuel-hungry world.
Mr Beckett felt that it was unlikely there would be electric cars in quantity before the 21st century.
City engineering
Ford's study of public transpart problems had led to the development of three innovative concepts. Two of them called for a rethink of basic city engineering principles.
ACT (Automatically Controlled Transportation) would be based on a network of elevated guideways carrying electricallypowered, pneumatic-tyred automatic vehicles and with a passenger-handling capacity of 40,000 an hour. This concept was demonstrated at Washington some three years ago.
The second concept, Dual Mode, utilises vehicles which are driven in the normal way in ordinary streets, but are then automatically channelled on to guideways identical to those used by ACT vehicles.
Mr Beckett's third concept was the familiar Dial-a-Ride used by a number of authorities with 12-seater Ford Transit buses. He stressed' that the advanced concepts were making slow progress through lack of finance.
Dr M. Hillman felt that every additional vehicle on the road represented a marginal reduction in the wellbeing of everyone.
Transport growth
Dr Hillman argued that road transport growth meant increasing dereliction of inner city areas and growing stress for sufferers from noise and pollution. The world had wasted one billion years of fuel in a single generation — according to a recent editorial in The Times newspaper.
Public transport must not be assumed to be an alternative to car use, said Dr Hillman, for most journeys were made on foot. Even when subsidised public transport was available many pensioners and others did not use it, preferring the convenience of going on foot at a time of their choosing. In one survey it was shown that 15,000 people —a quarter of them adults — had not used public transport in the previous month. There had been a little car-sharing but most had walked.
In essence, Dr Hillman argued for a life style in which money was not a prerequisite. He ended his controversial 'statement with a plea for experimental areas with much lower speed limits, with a check on the probable accident reduction thereafter.
Another conference speaker, Mr G. .M. Park, Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of Transport, was concerned with human values, but he stressed that many areas simply could not exist without modern transport facilities.
He urged the need for a rethink of many cherished policies because new economic realities would not permit many objectives included in structure and transport plans to be realised. This rethinking could provide an opportunity to redress some of the balance in the human equation and the conflict between better transport, greater mobility and environmental and safety considerations.
Mr Park, who is a councillor, said he was appalled that so much effort to promote public transport had been negative — aiming to make life difficult for car users, rather than improving public transport itself. He commended the new travel cards used in the West Midlands and Solihull.
He wanted subsidies to be used to encourage operators to provide better facilities, with bonus points or bonus money made available to successful operators. He urged low-cost measures for improving the environment — the canalisation of heavy goods vehicles and the stopping up of rat-runs.
Mr A. D. May, Greater London Council, described methods employed, or considered, to restrict oar use in the centre of London. Physical restrictions had been considered but ruled out because of lack of road space for queues of vehicles. He urged a common approach by AMA members. Policy statements on traffic restrictions should explain why controls were necessary. Such statements should make it clear where no restriction was necessary.
More flexibility was necessary, said Mr May, allowing quicker action and better enforcement. Restraints on parking and meter charges should be eased. He wanted the various authorities to support necessary legislation jointly, for London's problems were not unique and all could be helped by the right backing.