BIRD'S EYE VIEW
Page 65
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By The Hawk
Motorway Police Long overdue, but very
welcome, is the news that we are at last to have the beginnings of a separate motorway police force instead of the odd and typically British arrangement of letting each county look after the stretch of motorway which happens to pass through its territory. Drivers on M6 will be the first to meet the new police patrols, a sort of mixed-manned force of Z cars, painted white, with a helicopter thrown in for good measure. Lancashire, Cheshire and Staffordshire police will jointly man this experimental force which will start before Easter and will operate for about three months initially.
Headquarters for the joint patrols will be at Knutsford, where special radio equipment will enable patrol cars to contact the control, the helicopter or their individual county headquarters.
As the whole thing is experimental, the police and Home Office scientists are going to study the scheme very closely and the helicopter will be specially instructed to root out its blind spots. At least as important, to my mind, is that the Home Office has said it will welcome constructive observations from individuals or organizations, at the end of the experiment.
Designs for Future Whatever the outcome of the Phelps Brown Committee of inquiry into London busmen's pay and conditions might be, the Board is certainly maintaining a very strong interest in new designs of buses. I heard the other day that London Transport engineers have shown more than a passing interest in the Daimler Fleetline, and have visited the Daimler factory on more than one occasion. The use of a Fleetline drawing to illustrate the type of bus the Board had in mind for the country area might well have been more than a coincidence!
Now I learn that they are studying the newly announced Leyland Panther rear-engined model with equal interest. A London Transport official told me that they feel they must keep abreast of new vehicle developments.
A Salty Story It's amazing how many
ancient laws there are on the Statute Book in Britain which still govern our day to day activities. Not surprisingly some of them get overlooked! An interesting example occurred during the freeze-up in Scotland last winter. Various town councils authorized the use of salt to clear snow from many major roads. But it was later discovered that spreading salt was an offence under the Burgh Police (Scotland) Act of 1892. No prosecutions were taken out and action is now being taken to avoid any possible embarrassment in the future. The Government is hurrying through a Bill to redress this out-of-date provision. It has been entrusted to a private member. Commander Donaldson (Cons., Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles) and should be pushed through before the General Election.
Safety Pointer Very topically, the Pointer
Group, of Norwich, have issued their drivers with a safety code for driving at night and on slippery roads. it emphasizes the danger of driving on side lights only—and the use of dipped headlights is encouraged. "Don't flash headlights at other drivers driving on dipped beams," says the code, "they do it because they consider it safer than side lights ". It warns, too, that ht fog side lights cannot be seen at a distance—an opinion which is certainly shared by Mr. Marples and myself. Frankly, in recent thick fog (subsequent to the MI pile-up) I've been amazed at the number of vehicles, including buses, which have been content with "side lights only" in very bad driving conditions.
While everyone would, I'm sure, agree that it is foolish to "buy from a brochure" where vehicles are concerned, I have a feeling that some accompanying advice from Watney Mann group's assistant transport manager, Mr. N. R. Dodd, will be regarded as heretical by some operators—though personally I'm with him all the way. " Let your drivers try out a new vehicle before you buy it," he told the Norwich Traffic Club recently. Certainly the Watney Mann drivers should be in a good position to give well-informed opinions, as they spend three weeks in the repair shop as an introduction to the mechanical side of transport.
Mr. Dodd was also in favour of "one driver, one vehicle ", which he thought had great advantages where it is a practical proposition, not least from the psychological point of view, for after a time a driver came to regard the vehicle as "not yours, but his ". Sound sense, I'd say. Suck it and See
A tribute was paid to Stanley Nelson, the retiring Western Licensing Authority at the Transport Tribunal last week. In an appeal by E. D. Leavey, Plymouth (said to be the first appeal against Mr. Nelson for refusing an applicant) Miles Jackson-Lipkin, counsel for the respondents, said this: "If ever there was an L.A. who devoted his entire life in coming down on the side of the applicant, it is this one." Well done Mr. Nelson!
Tribute to L.A.