Lights Out and Roads Up.
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The accepted descriptive journalistic effort with regard to London's precautionary lowering of lights is "Cimmerian gloom." That may describe the condition of affairs satisfactorily, but in our opinion, there is more than gloom as a drawback to this very necessary state of affairs. There is very grave danger to life and limb. Of that, of course, the authorities are well aware. It is a risk that all of us, whether in the combatant forces or civilian life, in these days of culture, have to run. It is not necessary, however, to neglect precautions to minimize the risks arising from the new conditions.
The inaimediate result upon traffic has been a great slowing down of all the units, an alteration which has merely had the effects of inconveniencing the travelling public to a slight extent, and of annoying the "speed merchant,' who, in numerous instances, views the present period as an opportunity to disregard all rules and regulations as to speed and road behaviour generally. The latter class, of course, does not matter ; his discomfiture is of no moment whatever. We are happy to think that something has at last effectively served to enforce regard for the rights -of other users of the road. 0.H.M.S. labels and khaki uniforms are being made the direct excuse for much dangerous driving.
All the commercial vehicles that are left in the Metropolis, including the cabs and the buses, will continue satisfactorily to operate at a slower speed despite the absence of brilliant road lighting and the removal of their own lamps. Suggestions have emanated from other quarters to enable the average .speed to be maintained under these dark and dread
ful conditions. We are no party to them. The speed must be reduced, and with that we must be satisfied. We, however, wish to enter a very strong plea that local authorities should, wherever possible, abandon or make good roadway upheavals.
This is not the time for cavernous pits and entrenchments along our main traffic highways, now unlighted. This is not the time for Hammersmith Bridge to have half its roadway closed. This is not the time for many another big road repair job to be moceeded with. Their continuance is a very present danger to all other street users under existing conditions.
It would appear, too, as if the long-foretold decay of the tramways was beginning to be felt severely, for the numbers of track repairs of moment which are in progress in the Metropolitan area at the present time appear to be greater than ever. Wherever possible big jobs like this must be postponed in the interests of everybody, of vehicular and pedestrian traffic alike. If relief works are necessary, they must not take place in our darkened streets. We shall likely have to continue these anti-aircraft precautions, and even to increase them.
We are already becoming accustomed to the darkness, and we shall move about with more freedom on that account as days and nights go on. But the authorities must with equal adaptation put a stop to road improvements and anything but the most urgent of repair jobs in the affected areas. When they are necessary, they must be carried out in sections that can be completed during daylight. The disgraceful and dangerous condition of things at Hammersmith Bridge, and at other points of which we know, must be promptly remedied.