Culled from Contemporaries.
Page 17
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A Collection of Topical Paragraphs that we have Purloined from other Periodicals.
And the Other Fellow's.
assuming that one's car is in good order, freedom from accident depends almost entirely upon Proper driving.— Automobile Topics," New York.
In Business Thoroughfares.
It is neither practicable nor desirable to plant trees for railway lorries to collide against, much less to attempt any .4 the other forms of artistic decoration that would look very well in residential places.—" The Sanitary Record."
The Drift-bucking Lorry. au< 8 During blizzards and snows, when heavily-loaded, horse-drawn trucks are absolutely stalled, motor trucks can easily buck the drifts with an untiring energy limited only by the amount of gasoline or current supplied and the endurance of the driver.—" The Commercial Car Journal," Philadelphia.
An Aeronautical Simile.
The great whirring birds that now and again swept across overhead and dived down to the green plain waiting for them, and then ran along the ground with a sudden loss of dignity that reminded one of a disturbed ant or an old gentleman who has jumped too soon from a motorbus.—" The Manchester Guardian."
Where is the Advantage ?
It is difficult to see any point in favour of such a system as compared with the motor omnibus, for the railless tram is still not. a wireless vehicle, as is its petrol rival. Disfiguring posts and overhead wires as well as costly power-stations have to be erected even for the newfangled tram, and it is still impossible to run the cars on any route except that eriginally planned.—" The Birmingham Post."
Cabby's Five Days a Week.
In the division of the money paid by he public for accommodation they [the vommittee] seem to think that at present the drivers have rather the best of it. . Then, though the complaints of the drivers are loud, it appears to be admitted that most of them work only five days a week. If they were very hard hit by pzesent arrangements we should naturally expect to find them working six days a week.—" The Times."
The West must be Crowded.
A little knowledge of the habits of Londoners on the part of the manaprs of motor-'bus companies would assist those concerns to earn larger dividends. Motor-'bus managers apparently have a deeply-rooted belief that people go cut of the City in the morning and return to it late at night. At any rate, that is the only explanation of the system on which they run the 'buses. Along the IIammersmith to Liverpool Street route any morning between the hours 0! 9 and 10 you will find five 'buses going westward for every one travelling east.— " 11. A. P." The Radius of Gyration.
If the forces and couples that bring about side-slip were measured they would probably be found to be surprisingly small, and it is reasonable therefore to venture the opinion that comparatively small changes in the positions of the parts of the vehicle would make a great difference in the stability of the omnibus at moderate speeds.—" The Times (Engineering Supplement).
Keen Demonstrators.
The Tramway Cunimittee's decision to invest in two motorbuses, to be worked in conjunction with the tramway service, has drawn upon them the attention of quite a number of motor 'manufacturing companies, each of whom have considered it necessary to display their products. The result is that the councillors have had a regular series of motoring excursions.-" The Dundee Advertiser."
The Antiquated Tramcar.
To point out that the tramway and tramcar are cumbersome nuisances to every user of the road but themselves, that the tramline itself is an antiquated invention scarcely improved upon since the days of George Stephenson, that, the sacrifice of public streets and more than seldom, public money, for the keeping up of this old-fashioned fad is an outrage on the common sense of the community— all this is mere waste of breath, especially to the average member of the district council.‘ Leeds Mercury."
Not with Joy.
The advent of the taxicab has so greatly increased the amount of business and pleasure that can be packed into a London day that in preference to any diminution of the service Londonera would pay not perhaps with joy but without much hesitation an extra 2d. on
the firstmile. . . The driver would probably lose in tips a large part, of the extra money going to the owners. On short rides the average man gives a shilling, since asking for a beggarly two. pelleft of change requires more fortitude than it is worth.—" Morning Post."
Monopoly and Danger of Trams.
In some provincial cities, of coursa, the numicipal tramways have what is in effect a legal monopoly, since the corporations use their powers as the licensing authority to withhold licences from all vehicles capable of entering into effective competition with their tramways. tinder such conditions, of course, it should be easy to show a profit on working The London tramways conduct, of course, a large traffic, and an immediate cessation of these services would be little short of a calamity ; but in view of maintaining the amenities of the road it would be to the utmost advantage if some of them could be gradually replaced by some less obstructive and dangerous system of transport. The trams, in fact, are, in certain instances, not merely dangerous in themselves. hut are a f.'""ce of danger to others.—" Engineering."
The Sensible C.M.U.A.
The Commercial Motor Users' Association are to be congratulated on their very sensible suggestion as regards the regulation of slow-moving traffic in London. . . The C.M.U.A. could have wished for no better compliment than to have their suggestion tried by the police authorities.—" The Court journal."
Never Satisfied.
The public will have scant sympathy with any strife between the taxi-drivers and the Home Office Committee. The committee was extremely generous in regard to the claims of the men, who seem now to be threatening reprisals, because they did not get everything they asked for. If anybody has any reason to complain it is the cab-owners, not the men. —" The Evening Times," London,
Smoking Unlawful.
It has long been the wail of garage inen in New York City that there is not enough money in the garage business to make it worth while. What they will think if the new revised regulations are approved and enforced will hardly be fit to print. . . . In the first place it will cost him far inure to do business. Instead of the regular $10 rate for a permit he will be obliged to pay $5 per annum for each car stored on the premises. In addition to this a bond of $5,000 or more must be filed, and $50 will be charged each year for each storage tank . and $25 each for additional tanks. Besides this the proprietor must repaint all of his "No Smoking" signs and change them to read "Smoking
Un
lawful" instead.—" The Horseless Age."
Motor Vans Decrease Congestion.
A policeman's task at busy points becomes yearly more arduous, and it is not difficult to foresee a time when it will become impossible to unite the two
desiderata of speed and safety. . . . It is obvious that no restrictions can be placed on the number of private cars, and there is no reason to deplore the multiplication of commercial motor vans.
In fact, these vehicles only add to the congestion of the streets in so far as they increase the area which tradesmen and manufacturers can serve by road. Each large motor van placed on the streets means that probably two slower and more lumbering vehicles are displaced, and the result makes for a less crowded highway.
It may be taken for granted, too, that the mere presence of every commercial motor vehicle on the road is an evidence that it is wanted. No business man has the least. temptation to increase unnecessarily his bill for cartage; so long as he can make one van do his work he is not likely to order a second. But, though we are secure against any useless expansion of the volume of traffic in this direction, it is quite clear that within the next few years the number of steam or petroldriven vans and carte on the streets of London will be increased enormoualy.— " The Standard," London.