AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

the common room

1st May 1970, Page 99
1st May 1970
Page 99
Page 99, 1st May 1970 — the common room
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Work that rarely sees the light of day

AT the turn of the year I wrote of the value of articles giving background and current information on road transport topics in the journals published by the professional transport institutes. These articles, I emphasized, can be most useful for examination preparation in that up-to-date data is presented about the constantly shifting scene in road transport.

But there are many other valuable studies in road transport which do not appear in print and are never likely to be published. They are tucked away in various archives and libraries. They can certainly be consulted and read but information about their existence is rarely known. Detailed information on a number of aspects of road tr'ansport operation is sadly lacking and it is a matter of great concern that there is no central register of much of this work so that its extent and availability can easily be scanned. I am referring, for example to the many theses for higher degrees and other reports hidden away in university and other libraries, together with other work, which has been published by organizations which, ostensibly, have little or no connection with road transport.

Books and printed articles are easier to locate in various bibliographies-although, road transport operation does not normally fit into a simple, single library classification. But it is almost impossible to pinpoint unpublished work unless an organization can be set up specifically geared to look at the problem and willing to do the necessary tracking down.

However, an industry so split into so many organizations is a hampering factor in producing a co-ordinated list of recent research material. I would like to see the professional institutes and the universities with transport departments acting in concert to produce a cohesive bibliography of papers concerned with operating road transport-and the amount to be uncovered could be quite extensive. Such a list, moreover, would save a great deal of time for I have often found researchers going over the same ground as others before them but having no knowledge of the previous studies.

An example of the type of valuable unpublished material comes readily, as it were, from my own backyard. In 1966, London University instituted a Diploma in Transport Studies as a final year's work added to the part-time Certificate in Transport Studies and consisting of a substantial piece of transport research under individual guidance. Now in 1970 quite a large number of the theses are available for consultation and there is a very respectable list of publications concerned with a wide variety of detailed road transport topics. In the field of road passenger operation studies in London naturally predominate, with investigations into fare collection methods, service problems in Golders Green, Redbridge and Clacton-on-Sea but there are also scrutinies which have taken place in Derby, Burtonon-Trent, Radnorshire, the Hebrides, and a look at the changing role of the bus in two cities in the United States.

Traffic planning forms a large section and many theses are especially concerned with the perennial problem of the loading and unloading of vehicles in shopping centres. Detailed work carried out in the London area includes such contrasting areas as Orpington, Mile End, Hornsey, Woodley (Reading), Hemel Hempstead and Farnham. Something of the variety of road haulage is seen in a group of theses which look closely at specific case studies concerned with the delivery of newspapers, oil, building materials, food products, chemicals and cement. This is but a sample of one type of work which is not well known and rarely sees the light of day. There are many other examples elsewhere which I can only hope will not be forgotten and become completely buried.

Tags

Organisations: London University
People: Mile End
Locations: Derby, Reading, London

comments powered by Disqus