Look Well Ahead B EcAusE it is a service industry transport
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as a whole, and certainlY road transport in particular, tends to spend its time • finding . solutions to immediate problems. Nowhere. is there a properlyi co-ordinated agency with powers to look far ahead. True, there are individuals and organizations doing something. Examples can be found in the Institute of Transport's lead in setting up the readership at Oxford University in transport economics and organization, and in Professor Cohn Buchanan's chair in transport at London University.
But these efforts are both unco-ordinated and relate to transport as a whole.. No really deep_research is carried out in long-term changes which might arise and substantially bear upon the structure of road transport. At the moment this is a need that is barely apparent; it must surely, however, become much more necessary as the passage of time brings greater sophistication of transport facilities.
Whilst it is fair, to suggest that operators' organizations should he (hinking about this, and considering ways and means of taking joint action to sponsor such a co-ordinated body, its actual functiOning would undoubtedly need to be at Ministry level. In this respect, it might well be that a lead could come from Mr. Frank Cousins' Ministry of Technology, with active support from the Ministry of Transport.
There are many matters which could be carefully examined. For instance, it is at least a tenable theory. that within 59 years railways will no longer run on wheels but on air pads at much higher speeds; would this affect road transport's function? What about some honest research into causes of road accidents and effects of insufficient maintenance?
Is anyone farsighted enough to take a lead in this matter?