T HE important event of the week is the Public Works,
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Roads and Transport Congress and Exhibition promoted by a group of public bodies led by the County Councils Association. In addition to a full report of the exhibition, we deal in this issue with a number of important phases of municipal enterprise.
FOLLOWING up the recent conference of London authorities upon the question of ambulances and ambulance services, we give in this issue the first of' a series of articles describing the chief services maintained in the Metropolis. [Page 500.
THE report of the Public Works, Roads and Transport Exhibition appearing in this issue covers the exhibits of motor vehicles and appliances and those pertaining to road maintenance and construction. Good roads are essential for motor traffic to be able .to demonstrate the efficiency which is its great attribute. [Page 510.
THE City of London has set the lead to the world by its efforts to secure street cleanliness despite the extremely difficult conditions that prevail. We are able, thanks to the courtesy of the Cleansing Department of the Corporation, to explain how the daily " wash and brush up" is effected in that congested square mile. [Page 504.
OUR trenchant contributor, "The Inspector," in his weekly page of notes in this issue, seems to resent Lord Ashfield's request for protection of the London bus service against competition. There is, of course, a great deal to be said for the " open door," but no one can deny that the vehicles and the services (except at night time) have much improved since the L.G.O.C. and 'its allied companies obtained their present monopoly. * * [Page 503. * THAT difficulties in dealing with the sanitary services of a pleasure resort must result from the vast difference between the summer and winter popula, tions is obvious at the first glance. Our article on Blackpool's municipal fleet shows how the necessary flexibility is secured, and the account must be of interest to the officials of other localities in a like case, and particularly where the trouble is less acute and, in consequence, the same desirable experience has not been gained. * [Page 508. * * THE City of Manchester, the tramway service of which we have always held to be one of the best in the country (considered solely from the point of view of the passenger and his convenience), makes use of a fleet of 165 motor vehicles (allowing the term to embrace petrol, steam and electric, vehicles). As the outcome of a special visit paid to all the departments of the corporation we are able to show how these vehicles are employed and how they render extremely efficient service to the community. [Page 497. The New Eminence of the Highway. DURING the past two decades the highway has . become elevated to a degree of importance . which could scarcely have been anticipated even by the visienary of the pre-railway period, when the roads were the only possible means of communication. This degree of importance is measured by the volume of traffic, passenger and goods, which the roads are increasingly being called upon to carry.
Probably, in no country has the problem of finding the most suitable form of road crue'.; for carrying this increasing weight and volume of traffic, at enhanced speeds,been more closely .studied than in Great _ Britain. The task has been quite upon a par with anything that has faced the road engineer in mountainous countries, where gradients ,have constituted the crux of the problem, rather than form of road surface.
Greater traffic at higher speed has, in_ recent years, produced the pot-hole and the road wave. The latter is due to a longitudinal shifting of the surface, and the former to the pulverization of the foundations ; attrition, aggravated by the softening of the surface materials by the collection in the pot-hole of rainwater and the dissipation of the resulting mud by the wheels of passing vehicles, serving to continue the evil work. This pulverization of the foundations is quite well understood by those who realize the large amount of movement that goes on in the materials forming the road foundation, and it is in order to meet the conditions, accentuated as they am by modern traffic, that concrete foundations are to-day being reinforced with strong steel mesh. This gives a fibrous character to the concrete, which has enormously enhanced the value of that material for general constructional work, the experience so far gained therein having encouraged its employment in the construction of road foundations. Ou: only doubt in the matter arises out of our wonder as to what precisely is going to happen when the time comes for a renewal of the foundation of a ferroconcrete. road, for it seems as if nothing short of explosives and oxy-acetylene jets will serve to break it up.
The present generation is better able than its forbears to understand and ta appreciate the fact that, with horse traction, serious development of road traffic was quite impossible. The limits of capacity and endurance set a compass to the use of the horse. Speedy transit over long distances was *Jut of the
question, and serious gradients constituted barriers that, to the horse, were impassable. The traction engine, albeit slow, gave the clue to the solution of the problem. Power, and power alone, is solving the problem of making our roads of the greatest value to the nation, just as it has enabled us, at long last, to use the air as a means of transit and transport.
And as our means of employing power have advanced and are advancing with enormous rapidity --for see what the last 20 years have effected in the improvement of the internal-combustion engine—so we who desire to use that power on the roads must do everything possible to encourage and to 'assist the road engineer, otherwise we shall find our efforts checked and our enterprise unavailing, for the roads . will not be "pulling their weight " in the partnership between vehicle and highway.
Growth of the Trolley-bus System.
LOW capital cost has been a big factor in the decision of the London County Council to apply to Parliament for power to install a trolley-bus system over an eight-mile route in South London, between West Norwood and Lee Green,. constituting an important cross-town connection, as it would provide, in conjunction with existing tramway routes, direct means of communication between Norwood, Crystal Palace, Sydenham, Catford, and Lee Green. The estimated cost is 2148,670, and includes the trolley wire system, the rolling stock and maintenance essential.
This cost can be compared with the estimated cost of a, length of double rail from Stamford Hill, in the North of London, along Amhurst Park.The length is about 900 yards, and no power station or very much extra rolling stock is required, as it is merely an extension of an existing system. The estimated cost of this half-mile of permanent way is no less than 274,71e—a surn that, to us, seems out of all reason. There is not a great deal of traffic along the road, and such as there is is amply covered by bus service 42 with a four-minute headway. The latter tramway scheme does not appear to promise to be self-supporting; the trolley-bus service, on the other hand, does.
The Development of the Motor Vehicle to Meet Municipal Requirements.
INfew branches of work ha.s the motor vehicle made greater progress than in that performed by the various municipalities throughout the country, and yet the adoption of power-driven
vehicles did not take place to any considerable extent until long after these vehicles had earned the right to be considered one of the most important essentials in industry, although a few pioneer municipal engineers did much to encourage their use.
Steam rollers and tractors were, of course, employed before the petral vehicle was developed and the electric mad& sufficiently reliable to place into service ; and in addition to these a small number of steam wagons was employed in the early days by the Westminster City Council and the City Corporation, amongst others, but for many years the general antagonism which was directed against the private motor communicated itself to the local councils, and the members of these were loth to see the need for encouraging the use of what appeared to them a dangerous and expensive means of transport.
As in other spheres of activity, however, it. is now recognized in practically all municipalities that' the meter vehicle—by this we mean the steam, petrol or electric vehicle—is almost indispensable, and can do its work with greater expedition and efficiency than can the horsed vehicle, whilst, at the same time, considerably reducing the labour costs. As the antagonism gradually died out, the ordinary type of motor vehicle began to be brought into operation, but it was soon found that whilst satis D2 factory for certain limited classes of work, its sphere of action was too restricted. However, the requirements of the work soon caused developments to proceed apace. One of the first and most important of these was the general adoption of vehicles fitted with tipping gears.
The small mileage and the large number of stops involved in the collection of house refuse have made the electric vehicle the rival of . the horse for this kind of work. 'The lowering of thedoading line so that the dust receptacles;'can be tipped into the bodies,from me,snouiders of the men is one of the most modern ideas.
Encouragement of Export .Trade.
IT may be interesting to consider briefly what likelihood there is of. benefit resulting to the commercial motor industry by reason of the Government's measures designed to encourage exporttrade. We all know, and it is, therefore, in a sease, superfluous to reiterate, the fact that the chief real taouble is simply a question of price. If only we could get our prices low enough, we could obtain export trade regardless of the abnormal rates of exchange and without the assistance of any Export Credits scheme.
As regards price, the industry under consideration is certainly domg its best to fall into line with the requirements of its customers so far as labour and material 'costs make it possible to do so. There is no question of profiteering, but rather, on the other hand, there is some question as to whether certain manufacturers are not charging too little to allow of a reasonable working profit. It is impossible to over-emphasize the importance of employers and .employees pulling together to reduce costs, but there is too much of a tendency for people to say that, because this is the main trouble, the efforts that are being made by the Government, being no more than pa-lhatives, are necessarily practically valueless. The Government's scheme certainly represents a real attempt to do something in those spheres in which official intervention is possible. If it could be accompanied by a 'considerable decrease in the burden of taxation, things would, of course, be made much easier. At the moment, however, we have to consider facts as they are and not necessarily as we should desire them to be.
The new Export Creditsaescheme should be of distinct benefit to this and other industries, provided that, when it comes to the point, the method of working is really simplified down so as to make it easy for manufacturers to take advantage -of the scheme. Judging by the Prime Minister's speech, it is the intention of the Government to miake the scheme as workable as possible, but it remains to be seen whether permanent officials will tie it up in red tape. If so, it will be perfectly useless. It is, of course, a mistake to belittle the scheme on the grounds that the money set aside by the Government is. not enough to represent any considerable bulk of overseas trade. It should be remembered that this money can be used for financing credits not once but many times. If a firm is, for example, allowed 210,000 under the scheme, it can utilize the fact time after time, employing the money again directly 'an Recount to which it has been applied is settled.
Local Loan Finance and Trade Encouragement.
COMMENTS on the Government's proposals have also been rather confused by reason of a lack of appreciation of the fact that there are two quite distinct schemes on foot. The one is connected with Export Credits. The other, to which, again, 225,000,000 is applied, has as its purpose the guaranteeing of payments on loans to be applied towards the carrying out of capital undertakings or in the purchase of articles of British manufacture required for such undertakings.,
The Government; in effect, says that it will use this money to make it easier for national or local authorities or other responsible undertakings to raise loans for the purpose of financing works of development or applyinggoods of British manufacture to development purposes. This branch of the scheme may quite possibly be of considerable benefit to the industry with which we are concerned. It. may, for instance, lead to the acceleration of schemes of road improvement and tin provision of road transport services in various
parts of the Empire: It creates a definite tendency, in cases in which such schemes are under consideration, to purchase the necessary vehicles from British souices. The practical bearing of the scheme on the commercial vehicle industry depends on whether natior.al and local authorities can he got to realize that development is not merely a matter of railways and harbours, but also involves the maintenance of roads in fit condition to carry traffic and the provision of vehicles to ply upon those roads.