"Pink Zone . is 'Negative
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THE " pink zone " approach to urban traffic congestion was entirely negative and ignored the .basic function of a city, Mr. C. T. Brunner, vice-chairman of the British Road Federation, told the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in London on Tuesday.
Decisions on long-term policies for vehicles in cities must be taken now, he said. If traffic congestion continued,. or became worse, land usage of large areas' would alter, and the whole structure of property values would be affected.
The answer to the problem lay in imaginative planning for a balanced and highly concentrated city population, with adequate provision for operating and garaging vehicles. The alternatives were increased congestion or further urban sprawl.
Although the present road programme was welcome, it was only a fraction of the requirement to • make Britain's road system efficient. Because of the lack of a national plan, the need for motorways had been over-emphasized, to the prejudice of urban roads. Balanced development of both was needed.
Among likely trends Mr. Brunner included the use of helicopters, monorails', roads over railways. " clearways " and pedestrian precincts.
NEW THOUGHT ON FIXED PRICES
THE President of the Board of Trade is studying Section 25 of the Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1956, to decide . whether changes should be made to prevent the individual enforcement of re-sale price maintenance. A positive statement is unlikely for some time. Mr. John Rodgers, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, gave this information to the House of Commons on Tuesday.
As reported in The Commercial Motor on January 15. the Free Trade Union have attacked re-sale price maintenance in the tyre trade and have urged that it should be abolished.
BUS SUBSIDY URGED
COUNTRY buses should be subsidized, 1,--"the Jack Committee were told on Tuesday by a delegation from the National Federation of Women's Institutes. The Federation, which has been pressing for better rural bus services since 1956, had been invited by the committee to supplement written evidence' given in December. A delegation of four from the Federation maintained that there were many villages with no bus service
within two miles.
B.M.C. OUTPUT THREATENED .
Is T w5 likely on Wednesday that within 48 hours .there_ would be a widespread stoppage :of Work in the -British Motor. Corporation,as -a result of an unofficial strikeby -55 electricians. in the. tractors and transmissions" branch. The dispute concerned the :interpretation of a corn-. promise. agreement -reached between -the management of .B.M.C. and Mr. F. Foulkes, president of the Electrical Trades Union.