Traffic Will Be Doubled in 1963 R OAD traffic last year
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increased by 13 per cent., as compared with 1952, and if the current rate of increase continues the number of vehicles on the road in 1963 will be about double the present figure. Accidents have shown a disturbing upward trend in line with the increase in traffic density and yet there is no comprehensive programme qt. road improvements to provide for future traffic increases and the safety of the road user.
These observations are made in "Road Research, 1954" (Stationery Office, 4s.), the annual report of the Road Research Board,
Accident rates for people killed or injured in this country range from 20 for main roads carrying heavy traffic through busy shopping centres, to two for rural roads carrying light. traffic. The comparative figures for busy motorways from which cyclists and pedestrians are excluded, based on the experience of such highways in America and Germany, range from 0.4 to 1.2.
The percentage of accidents involving skidding on wet roads, has increased. Many drivers wrongly associate all coarse-textured road surfaces with immunity from the risk of skidding, says the report. It is possible for such surfaces to become polished.
Other points covered by the report are concerned with improvements in the manufacture of toughened glass for windscreens, the need for the better placing of head lights, and the inability of pedestrians correctly to assess the speed of oncoming vehicles.
APPEAL FAILS, BUT LICENCE MODIFIED
AN appeal by E. H. Watts (Haulage), Ltd., Sutton Coldfield, against the grant of a B licence to Messrs. Upton Bros., Coleshill, by the West Midland Deputy Licensing Authority was dismissed by the Transport Tribunal last week, but the Tribunal directed that the terms of the licence be restricted by the Authority.
The Authority allowed Messrs. Upton to add a 21-ton vehicle to their fleet of 24 livestock vehicles. The Tribunal directed that the vehicle be licensed to carry livestock within a radius of 40 miles only for customers within six miles.
MINISTER'S TRIBUTE TO BUS OPERATORS
" fSHOULD like to pay very high tribute to the sense of public-spirit involved in the operation of unremunerative services in rural districts by many of these [bus] operators, for which I think that we should be very grateful," the Minister of Transport said in the 1-Iouse of Commons last week. He told Mr. P. Wells that in rural Kent in 1953 and 1954, 52 services were curtailed but none was corrIpletely suspended. At the same time, 74 services were improved.