Why Vehicle Development Must be Accelerated.
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THE OTHER day, forming one of a group of persons interested in road transport discussing roads and multi-wheeled vehicles, we listened to the argument of one of the number who gave it as his opinion that The Commercial Motor was advocating an attack uponftan admitted problem from a wrong angle. His contention was that the roads should be built to carry modern traffic (a contention, by the way, that po one disputed), and that, by trying to influence the trend of vehicle design to suit present road conditions, we were likely to encourage the continuance of those conditiens.
The argument was unsound, because it ignored the fact that progress towards ideal ,conditions of road travel will be attained all the quicker if the work of reform proceeds from both ends simultaneously—if the vehicles be improved as well as the roads—and if as little as possible of the improvement effected in road foundation and crust be undone by the use of unsuitable vehicles. A local road authority has only so much/money to spend in each twelve-month, and it can, obviously, do more in the way of improvement if economy can be effected in mere maintenance.
It is absurd, too, to ask for more rapid progress in road improvement (except as we have just indicated). We are now spending £52,000,000 per annum on the roads of the whole country, and we are all groaning under the burden of taxation.
Our first and second-class roads (if the tonnage they are called upon to carry is not to be so limited as to act as a restraint upon trade) require to be provided with new foundations, and the cost of this could easily impose a burden of £200,000,000 per annum for some years to come. Any road user (with a claim to that ;arm, given by a sufficient annual road mileage) would admit that the total amount of observable benefit from 252,000,000 of expenditure is, in comparison with the real need for improvement, not very great. But any larger expenditure is quite.beyond the. means of the nation, and_the work of road strengthening.must he so slow a process that, in our time, we shall never see its completion. • That being so, We contend that we are not unreasonable in advocating simultaneously with the improvement of the roads a development of vehicle design which shall give us some of the advantages
of smoother road travel, and, in addition, shall give us better adhesion and other improved vehicle qualities. These advantages, we assert, can be obtained readily by careful application of the prinenalo of spreading the load over more than four wheels.
How Taxation Hits the Provincial Bus Owner..
AN OPINION about the possibilities of a provincial bus service in the weekly article by the contributor to our columns of "Transport Tips for Tradesmen" made us think of the hardship imposed by the present mode of taxation upon the concerns operating buses in localities where the pcpulation is small and the traffic, in consequence, scanty.
In London and the large cities (although we believe that lio area other than the Metropolitan Police District has been scheduled by the Minister of Transport for the imposition of the higher rates of duty) a tax of £84 per annum for a hackney vehicle, seating 32 persons, can be borne with a certain amount of equanimity. . A London bus is on the road 350 days per annum, so that it pays a tax of less than 5s. per day's run of 100 to 110 miles. It carries a volume of traffic that can bear such a tax, although it is understandable that a lump sum of a quarter of a million sterling, payable on January 1st, cans for very skilful financing.
But, look at the case of concerns operating from a country town, where a tramway service belonging to the borough deals with all the passenger traffic within a certain radius. The bus-operating concerns can deal only with the traffic between the -villages and the town. The villagers, the school children, and the residents who wish to reach the railway station will require, say, three buses into town in the morning at close intervals, sag, at 8 o'clock, 8.30 o'clock, and 9.30 o'clock, the starting point of the service being about 10 miles out. At that hour in the morning there will be no outgoing traffic, and the question will arise as to whether it is profitable for the first bus to run Wok empty for a dietance of 10 miles in order to take the third load of passengers. Usually it is found to be more economical to run a third bus. The first outward traffic will be about 12 o'clock, villagers returning home for the midday meal ; the school children and those people who have stayed in the town over lunch-time will require return buses at about 4.30, and, from 5 o'clock onwards, the men returning from the distant city and elsewhere will require a more frequent service to get them home. As a rule, one bus out of three will do three or four journeys per day, the second will do two or three, and the third one journey (double, of course). The total mileage, taking the higher figures for the three buses, will be 100, and, the duty being £70 per bus per annum and each bus being off the road for overhaul about 21 days a year, the tax will work out at about 12s. per bus per day, one bus, be it remembered, covering hut 20 miles in the day, whilst the taking on Sundays will be low and only be comparatively high on the two marketing days per week. As the whole of the effect of taxation upon the transport industry is now being examined, we do ask for a full consideration of the position of the provincial bus owner, and, to make a concrete suggestion for his relief in all fairness, we ask whether it would not be possible to give a rebate of at least 25 to 30 per cent. in all cases where, on the production of a schedule of bus operations, confirmed, if necessary, at the end of each month by an examination of the company's books and by the ohservations of the police, a local police superintendent is prepared to give a certificate to the effect that the distance covered by a hug in service
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does not exceed, we will say, 150 miles per week. The idea could 'beextended to taxation relief to the extent of, say, 12i4: per cent. where the mileage is below 200 per week. The difficulties confronting the provincial bus owner are so great that, unless something of this sort can be done for him, the bus services will be withdrawn and a powerful influence operating to keep the people on the land will be irretrievably lost.
Isolating the Driver of the Motor Coach.
IN dealing with the need, more especialOnsthe case of the motor coach, for the isolationS:tif the driver, let us at the outset make it quite clear that as many complaints come from drivers of interference from passengers of a certain clams as there are against the drivers for conversation and chaffing
with passengers. •
The distraction of the driver from his work is unquestionably fraught with danger, and, just as it is the rule at sea not to speak to the man at the wheel, interlopers being forbidden to intrude upon the bridge, so it should be the rule in the ease of the motor coach (because the trouble does not arise in the case, of the bus or the goods vehicle) that the driver should be left alone to attend to his job. Otherwise the safety of the passengers is unquestion
ably jeopardized. .
We deal with this matter on other pages of this issue and make a few suggestions as to the means to be employed to attain the end in view. It seems to us that there is no need for elaborate or complete partitioning, because a definite gap or low obstyuction between driver and passenger is quite sufficient to keep the latter in his place, or to render it difficult and uncomfortable for him to attempt conversation with the driver when the vehicle is moving.
Six Wheels Eliminate Ugly Body Overhang.
HERE is nothing uglier in motor vehicle design, and particularly in the design of motor coaches, than a pronounced overhang—that is the extension of the body rearwards and so far beyond the rear axle that it seems to hang unsupported in the air and to threaten to break off. There is a sense of insecurity about it that arrests the attention, and arrests it in an unfavourable manner. The impression created is similar to that formed when one observes a great building evidently carried upon a few sheets of plate glass set on edge. Modern architects have realized the incongruity of such design and have, in recent years, reverted to substantial pillars as a frame to their windows, simply to give a truer appearance of adequate support.
As a matter of fact, what appears insecure is generally open to a charge of weakness, and, in the case of the motor coach, with its great overhang, gaping doorways and badly fastening doors confirm the impression made upon the eye. It is not practicable to set the rear axle of a four-wheeled vehicle farther to the rear so as to reduce the overhang because the added weight on the front wheels would render the steering. much more laborious ; but, if the rear wheels be Increased in number from two to four, the middle axle would relieve the front wheels of weight, and the rearmost axle,being considerably behind the position that the rear axle of a four wheeled vehicle would occupy, would give better support (and a better appearance of support) to the body, reduce the tendency to skid, and, in the event of a skid, reduce the sweep of the body over the pavement.
• In the case of the bus body, the employment of more than four wheels seems to gym great advantages, as is shown in an article on the subject appearing in this issue.