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Progress in 'the Mechanization of Municipal Services.
Page 93
Page 94
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rpIIERE is no sphere of activity in which the -I'motor vehicle (both for • passengers and material) and the motor appliance have exercised a more marked effect than in connection with the many branches of Municipal work. The outstanding advancements have, of course, been made in connection. with passenger transport, and here the bus and the trolley-bus have, in many cases, supplanted that older form Of loComotion, the tram, whilst in ether cases they are being used either as a means for extending routes or for feeding those' already existing.
Thelatest developments in this direction have been towards the inauguration of express bus services and, curiously enough, in certain cases such services when used aleng existing tram routes, for at least a part of the distances covered, have exercised no harmful result upon the takings of the trams, showing conclusively that these express buses are meeting what was formerly a transport deficiency. This is only another proof that the provision of facilities is sufficient to attract new. custom. . It is a. good sign that in many municipalities the bus and trolley-bus are now being looked to as a solutionof many difficulties, and not execrated merely because 'they are rivals of tramway systems. There are, naturally, ninny districts where buses have already taken the place of trams, and there will no doubt be, many more, but we think that the municipal authorities concerned will be the first to express the (*linen that the change has been all to the good: It is quite impossible to particularize and to say that one type of road vehicle is better than another for passenger-transport work. The problem differs in almost. every town and city, and each has to fight its own battles.. One finds that the .small-capacity, One-man-operated bus is ideal; another proves that. to Meet its own particular needs the large-capacity, six-wheeled double-decker is essential. .Thisis fortunate because it gives scope for all.'
The situation so far as the sanitary arrangements of municipalities are concerned is not quite so satisfactory, although even here marked progress has been made of recent years. There is still much to be done In the employment of types of vehicle and methods of refuse
collection which will entirely obviate the sprinkling of streets and passers-by with dust and debris from open collecting vehicles and bins, particularly in windy weather. Such antiquated methods would not be tolerated for a moment in Continental cities, and why should they be able to do better than us? We are afraid that, whereas the bus is looked upon as a revenue earner, the dust cart is often considered as a necessary evil upon which as little as possible should be spent.
The cleansing of the majority of our streets is steadily improving with the greater employment of modern appliauees, some of which both sweep the refuse and collect the detritus into their own bodies, thus obviating the time lapse between sweeping and collection which so complicates the matter where there is much traffic.
The production of appliances designed to meet a multiplicity of needs is not confined to the street-cleanser ; in fact, there is a tendency In several other directions, as, for instance, -in the gully-emptier and street-washer, the gully and cesspool-emptier and street-waterer, lorries which can be equipped with watering tanks and so forth, the purpose in every case being to avoid vehicle wastage during periods when certain services are not required. Perhaps the most obvious of these is in connection with road-watering, which is not required during wet weather.
Additions to Fire-fighting Equipment.
VEW changes of a striking nature have oe
curred in connection with the employment of means for combating fire. There is a decided tendency in smaller municipal areas to employ that extremely useful and efficient type of appliance, the trailer pump. Other recent products have shown a tendency towards being lighter and more mobile, so being capable of better manceuvring in traffic. In some cases they are equipped with pneumatic tyres, and in our opinion it will not be long before this class of tyre will be used to a far greater extent for such work. An addition to the more important brigades is the emergency tender equipped with searchlights, smoke helmets, oxygen reviving apparatus and, cutting and other tools for dealing with lift accidents, etc.
Little can be said in criticism of our latest methods agully-emptying and flushing, for there have been great improvements in the machines employed for this work, as Pe` gards sanitation and the speed with which they perform their duties, and, not least, in the ease with which they discharge their contents.
Modern traffic conditionsdemand the provision of dustless roads, and one of the best ways to prevent dust is to spray road surfaces with tar or one of the bituminous emuLsions which can be employed efficiently for this purpose, but unless special machines be utilized this work Involves the employment of much manual labour and cannot be carried out at a sufficiently high speed; consequently, advantage cannot be taken of the periods of reduced traffic. With the latest forms of tar and emulsion-sprayer the work can be carried, out at speeds of something like 5 m.p.h., and in some cases the outfits include gritting machines, so that no sooner is the tar or emulsion sprayed than it is protected by a layer of grit, which is doubly beneficial in that the grit is able to become well mixed with the liquid as distinct from merely covering it, and the traffic can pass over the surface almost immediately without risking the throwing up on to the bodywork and windows of unsightly splashes, which are extremely difficult to remove without injury to the finish. Ambulande services are improving throughout the country, and it is only the more extensive employment of motor vehicles which is permitting this.