Commercial Motor Parades in 1914.
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It is satisfactory to know that the programme for the 1914 London Parade is well advanced. This Parade will be the eighth annual event of the kind to be organized by the Commercial Motor Users Association, and it will be held on Whit Monday. Negotiations are in progress to ensure the provision of a parade-ground which shall not be subject to the limitations that have been experienced on the last two occasions in the vicinity of the Tate Gallery. In any event, a venue in the Metropolitan area, and as conveniently situated as possible, will, be adopted. We anticipate that the official arrangements will be published about three weeks from to-day. The other parade, to which it is understood the C.MIT.A. will lend all its influence and support, is expected to take place, in. Lancashire, on or about August Bank'Holiday. Choice of date and place have yet to be made: we have heard Blackpool mentioned in the latter regard. The borough possesses a most-progressive body of town councillors, and they may decide to move in the matter.
This Northern parade will, we understand, be primarily organized by the Manchester, Liverpool and Counties C.M.U.A., but that affiliated. Association will no doubt be glad to avail itself of the experience which has been gained by the incorporated body in London. Further. we hope to find that the North and East Lancashire C.M.U.A. and the West Riding C.M.U.A. will co-operate. Estimates of this Lancashire gathering are already being made in a spirit of assured success, and with a degree of optimism that indicates the possibility of a muster which will rival the best that has been achieved in the Metropolis. The writer will not be surprised, as a Lancashire man himself, if this forecast prove to be correct. Why not take Bolton by storm, and go there It is a goad centre, and such an assembly in their midst might break down the borough's attitude of hostility. There is a fine Town Hall Square at Bolton. As we go to press, however, we learn -that Manchester may be chosen for this noteworthy assembly.
The Control of the Horse.
At a, time when the necessity for some measure of control over the pedestrian is asserting itself, it is satisfactory to find that positive action in regard to the control of the horse is taking place. We have, from the standpoint of general principle, pointed out on several occasions that any enactments, or powers under Acts of Parliament to make regulations, which are in the first instance brought into force with the object of controlling motor traffic, must in their turn be applied, when mechanical transport comes into its own., to the control of horse traffic. For example, in the central zones of our chief cities, and certainly in the inner zones of the Metropolis, we look for the early arrival of the clay when the same care will be necessary on the part of owners of horses, to prevent the pollution of street surfaces, that is now imposed upon owners of motor vehicles, to prevent any drop
pings of oil or grease. Why should this not be rule Usage alone stands in the way, but that which has been found possible with motors—effective biterception—must one day be required of horse owners. We are prompted to make the foregoing cc nament, by reason of the recent publication of a by-lav, made by the London County Council, in pursuance of the provisions of Section 23 of the Munipical Corporations Act., 1882, and Section 16 of the Local Government Act, 1888, in regard to skid pans on' lock chains, and brakes. These regulations read as follow :—
" Every person who shall cause or permit any four-" heeled van, dray or heavy vehicle (other than a four-wheeltd van, dray or heavy vehicle drawn or ,propelled by mechanical power) to be in any street., highway or road to which the public has access, shall provide and maintain in good working order an efficient. skid pan or lock chain which shall be attached to the body of the van, dray or heavy vehicle, and be capable of adjustment to one of the back wheels of the van, dray of heavy vehicle; and any person driving such van, dray or heavy vehicle down hill shall, when necessary, properly apply such skid pan or lock chain to one of the back wheels .)f such van, dray ot heavy vehicle.
" Fvery person who shall cause or permit any four-wheeled van, dray, or heavy vehicle (other than a four-wheeled van, dray',' or heavy vehicle drawn or propelled by mechanical power), to be in any street; highway or road to which the public have access, shall provide and maintain in good working order an effective brake, which shall be fitted with some locking arrangement by which it can be left applied whtm the driver quits his seat, and shall be of such construction, and maintained in such condition by means of a covering of leather or otherwise as to prevent it, when applied, from making any loud or continuous noise to the annoyance of inhabitants or passengers; and any person driving such van, dray, or heavy vehicle, shall apply such brake when necessary."
It is provided that these by-laws shall not for the present apply to any van, dray or heavy vehicle existing prior to the 15th June last, but that they shall come into force, in regard to such vehicles, on the 14th June, 1916. Any person who shall offend against either of these by-laws shall be liable for each offence to a fine not exceeding 46s. The non-inclusion of motor vehicles under the provisions in these by-laws is, of course, due to the already-stringent requirements in regard to brakes which apply to them. Owners and drivers of all tyPes of commercial motors, who are repeatedly hindered and obstructed, and endangered in addition, by the lack of control of many types of hovse4rawn vehicles, both in urban and rural districts, will be encouraged by this action on the part of the L.C.C. We commend the text of these by-laws to all local authorities, and We also suggest that their import should be memorized by everybody who is concerned with heaary motor traffic; they will no doubt, on many occasions, be able to report infractions of them, whilst their adoption will accelerate the " scrapping " of numerous vehicles upon which it will be held inexpedient to spend any money for new fittings. slowly but surely, the, old horse regime is being forced into line with the new conditions which mechanical transport renders inevitable in these days of rapid traffic. London Traffic.
We proceed, on this and the following pages, to review in some detail, together with comment, the Report of the Select Committee on Motor Traffic in the Metropolis. We are fundamentally dissatisfied with the Report, not because the findings of the Committee presage any change of legislation which we believe can be of more than passing detriment to the unrestrainable extension and growth of motor traffic, but because of its obvious one-sidedness. We rely upon the memorandum of the L.G.O.C. in respect of the L.C.C. antecedents of the members of the Committee; we regard a preponderance of that interest as an undesirable and vicious influence upon the Committee, and as one which cannot fail to have maned findings and recommendations that should have been at once impartial and above suspicion. We have, in common with journals of all denominations and interests, deplored the loss of life that has occurred during the past few years, but we have, at least to our own satisfaction, and, we believe, to that of well-informed people who know the difficulties of the situation, indicated the reasons for these increases in totals of both fatal and non-fatal accidents. It is evident that the Committee has not sufficiently regarded the following vital points, amongst others :— motorbus development is a comparatively-new one ; tube and other traffic facilities in London have enormously increased the number of pedestrians in the streets ; motorbuses run many more miles per day than they were able to do a few years ago, and this increase of mileage per unit is undertaken in the interests of the travelling public and to meet legitimate demand. When the numbers of motorbuses in service are multiplied by the average miles run per vehicle for the respective years, an undoubted improvement in the ratio of accidents—and it is with ratios that we must be concerned—is disclosed.
The Report pointedly, signally, and to our mind most egre&iously, fails to make any fair references to this material point of greater mileageper unit.
We object to L.C.C. control, and that is what the Report in effect gives. There is, of course, a measure of safeguard in the powers of confirmation and revision which it is proposed to confer upon the enlarged Traffic Branch of the Board of Trade. This is now to become in effect the Traffic Board for London, but the equity of the situation, or the reverse, will undoubtedly depend upon the nature of those powers, and the manner in which they are exercised. It will particularly depend upon the expedition of procedure, because, according to the outline that is now before us, the London County Council may soon be put in a statutory position to deal with the L.G.O.C. and other London motorbus proprietors according to its own predilections, and there will conceivably be no guarantee of protection in regard to periods of deferment, disturbance and interruption of motorbus service.
We are gratified to find that "The Times" along with other leading journals maintains that it is unfair and unwise to give the L.C.C. control, in spite of the Court of Appeal that is provided by the new Traffic Branch of the Board of Trade. It considers that "the only permanent and equitable solution for the adjustment of conflicting interests would be the establishment of an independent Traffic Board, instead of the proposed new branch of the Board of Trade." The Committee has clearly been obsessed by a determination to protect the L.C.C. tramcars at all costs. Its findings appear wholly to have com. mended themselves, for this reason, to pro-tramcar papers like "The Daily News." We quote from that journal's issue of the 15th inst., from a leading article on the subject of the Report : " The Report proves up to the hilt that the indiscriminate slaughter in the streets-182 fatal accidents from motorbuses last year —is the work of the London General Omnibus Co. conducting its business on methods which we should have thought it did not require a Committee to inform a schoolboy are deliberately contrary to public policy. The existing licence to kill must be determined." We wrote, last week, in the absence of information as to the proposal to subject the L.C.C. to any forms of supervision. We repeat our conviction that, on a steaight fight at the polls on motorbus v. tramcar, it is the adherents of the motorbus who will win.