PLANNED PROGRESS
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IN introducing his paper, "Planned I Progress ", Aid. A. Logan, a member of the Manchester Corporation transport committee, contrasted the conditions prevailing 60 years ago with those of today. Then it was accepted that man's place of employmerit was confined to within a few miles of his home. Similarly the annual week's holiday meant little more than a journey of 50 miles or so, almost without exception by train. Today large numbers of people journeyed 10, 20 and 30 miles daily by road to and from work, whilst holidays, if taken within these islands, meant anything from motor tours by car or coach to journeys of 200 to 400 miles to their holiday venue.
c44 Who could question the fact that without the common ownership of the car there would not have been the urgent drive for schemes of staggering magnitude to create and develop road systems, new and improved, which would eater for this mass movement of people? With this background and faced with the ever intensifying congestion of our towns and cities at the peak periods, it had become imperative to consider and reconsider the provision of adequate facilities for the mass movement in and through the centres.
Proposals for banning vehicles in city centres or making it more difficult or more expensive for them to enter and stay there represented a negative approach to the problem and ignored the basic functions of a city. If people could not easily shop, make business or
professional visits, or attend entertainment in a city they sooner or later transferred their custom elsewhere. Although in the short-term some restrictions would be necessary, plans must be made for the reasonable use of motor vehicles, otherwise the town could not hope to continue, let alone expand or develop.
If it were accepted that it would not be possible or desirable to provide sufficient roads or terminal facilities for everyone coming into the city centre to do so by car, the natural corollary was that commuter travel in particular was best catered for by mass public transport, providing it was cheap and efficient. An adequate public transport system was also essential to the commercial prosperity of the city.
Public transport alone would not, however, provide the whole answer, no matter how efficient and no matter what inducements were offered. Car owners and drivers would continue to increase. The car not only offered independence but satisfied many personal considerations, not the least of which was a wish to escape the discomforts of travel by public transport during peak periods.
Not the least noteworthy among the wide variety of planninz activities were the regional studies set up in 1964 at the instigation of the Secretary of State for Industry, Trade and Regional Development.
SELNEC Transportation Survey Ald. Logan described the SELNEC technical committee which was set up in November, 1958, to examine the highway needs of the south-east Lancashire and north-east Cheshire conurbation. A survey of the transportation needs for this area was authorized on November 15, 1963. Subsequently a firm of consultants was appointed to direct and carry out the survey. A number of meetings had been held and at the time Aid. Logan's paper was compiled the consultants had submitted a most exhaustive and interesting report on the design of the study which would consist of three stages. First, there would be data collection; second, analysis of that data and development of a transportation and land use model applicable to the SELNEC area; and last, the use of the model to test and develop land use transportation plans.
The most significant feature which had emerged was the need to determine the degree of motorization which would be accommodated by the plan. Two main factors would control this—the scale of road construction and the accessibility of environmental areas to the motor vehicle, the latter being dependent on detailed
planning, as demonstrated by the Lan= Report, idles by the London Traffic ManageUnit had established that in central Ion the introduction of a one-way t meant an average increase of 30 cent in journey distance. This nisly had its repercussions on ley limes and it was calculated that verage capacity of the streets affected he one-way system needed to be aser.1 by considerably more than 27 :ent to attain even the same average ley time.
members of the MPTA would beips painfully—aware, details were at by the Ministry of Transport in 1965 in respect of all phases of
passenger transport operation. a included particulars of gross me, vehicle miles, expenditure on and materials, employment broken into occupational proportions and jog trends, training, redundancy and ages. These figures were projected 970 and the industry's comments invited on the minimum labour with which the current level of it could be maintained using existing anent, together with possible methods ncreasing productivity along with :stions for achieving it.
e publication of the' information piled on the basis of the replies ved was expressly forbidden, but it abvious that the industry might well to operate within the framework of national plan for the most effective nd deployment of national resources.
le of the most encouraging signs of imes was the action of the MPTA ranging meetings between a number ty engineers from larger authorities representatives of the Association. nigh nothing of a specific nature ged from these meetings it was a ite move in the right direction to secured some measure of agreement le need for special priorities to be I to bus operation in congested town es, particularly during peak hours.
1 Logan then turned to the subject ipid transit, which to many people come to mean the provision of al bus lanes, with layhys for loading unloading; the right of buses to ite against the flow of traffic on in sections; and the privilege of ng right-hand turns prohibitive to vehicles. After a most careful ination of comparative speeds. costs, Lies, performance and suitability, amendations were framed that there
d be an examination of the situation e Manchester area as a matter of urgency, with particular emphasis on the development of express bus services with reserved lanes in the main arteries of the city.
What happened? Aid. Logan said he was tempted to say—precisely nothing. But that would be misleading. The report was solemnly received by the City Council and referred to the joint subcommittee on traffic congestion. There were as yet no special reserved lanes for buses in Manchester, nor even provision for experimental express bus services along such reserved lanes. This situation. common to many towns and cities throughout the country. was worth emphasizing because it served to underline the fact that despite the most solemn and serious warnings from the highest possible authorities, little actual progress had been made.
The Manchester experiment with oneman buses and the use of TIM Holstimane ticket-cancelling machines was then described, and Aid. Logan stated that the original average boarding time of 52 sec. per passenger had been reduced to 3-3 sec. This compared with 1-8 sec, per passenger in Lille, France, where a similar system had been in operation for some time and where 68 per cent of all passengers used pre-purchased tickets.
One of the major difficulties facing all operators was the continued recession in traffic during off-peak periods. In general, such a situation called for an examination of the possibility of reducing frequencies, bearing in mind the need to have sufficient staff to cover the requirements of the peak period. Experiments had been taking place in Leeds to increase off-peak frequencies during the 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. period where the undertaking was satisfied that there appeared to be some elasticity of demand.
The services concerned were those linking outer suburbs where potential passengers might not be prepared to wait for a bus on a half-hour service, but would do so on a 20or 15-min. service. In those cases where such a change had been made it had been found to produce satisfactory results and ,a sufficient number of additional passengers had been gained to justify the additional mileage run.
On the question of subsidies for public transport, and in particular the subsidy of 0+ rn, for public transport in the London area to avoid increases in fares pending an investigation of the LTB's financial position, Ald. Logan said that taken in conjunction with the refusal to authorize fares increases proposed in the Midland areas, this was an indication of a growing awareness of the economic difficulties confronting every transport authority. Ironically this was perhaps more because of the ever increasing passenger resistance to fares increases rather than any concern for the transport operator.