Anachronistic Toll Roads and Bridges
Page 28
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THE continued employment of toll roads and bridges is completely dissociated from all our ideas of modernity. Every highway should be public and no particular section retained for profitmaking. A considerable number has, of course, been freed, but too many still exist, and little has been done in this matter during the past five years. According to a statement made by the Minister of Transport in answer to a recent question in the House of Ccimmons, local authorities own two toll roads and 10 toll bridges, whilst the railways possess five roads of this type and nine toll bridges. Since 1930 the only successful effort made in this direction has been to free two of the municipally owned bridges, nothing having been done in connection with those controlled by the rail ways. There is little excuse for this neglect, because when local authorities free a toll bridge it becomes part of a classified highway, the cost of maintenance being eligible for grant. Money is also available to highway authorities for taking over these assets from the railways.
What Constitutes Dangerous Tyre Condition?
pROSECUTIONS against operators of motor vehicles equipped with pneumatic tyres who permit them to wear to a condition which the police consider to be dangerous are increasing, and it is important that the situation should be clarified, for, at present, there are many conflicting views upon this matter. Some experts might consider a tyre as being dangerous if its non-skid tread be so worn as to make the tyre practically smooth ; others would' regard a tyre as being in a dangerous state only when it is so worn that the cord carcase is materially damaged. Several prosecutions, have failed because tyre experts, called as witnesses by the defendants, have given evidence to the effect that covers which had worn down to what the police considered to be the carcase had really worn only so far as the fabric breaker strip, under v.thich, of course, is another thickness of rubber.
The matter is at present engaging the attention of a conference of tyre manufacturers working in conjunction with the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, and it may be that some formula will be devised which can be put forward to the authorities as something upon which a ruling can be based. The matter is just another of those difficulties which are always liable to occur when nontechnical police endeavour to express their arbitrary opinions upon a problem which is difficult of elucidation even by engineers.