Vehicle Design versus Roads
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MANUFACTURERS of goods and passenger vehicles and the operators of these are becoming increasingly worried concern. ing the production of vehicles for post-war use and the effect which legal restrictions may exercise upon their design. . It is fully realized that these must, to a considerable degree, continue to depend upon the liriiitations necessarily imposed by road conditions especially in 'respect of highway capacity in the matter of size and weight. Obviously, to revise the whole of the construction and use regulations will involve a long and arduous task, and following suggestions put up to the M.O.W.T. by the various interests concerned, the latter, some months ago, invited the submission of suggested modifications covering the major points of design. So far it has received only those from the p.s.v. side of the industry. We understand, however, that the S. J.C. has had the problem under consideration and is placing its views before the S.M.M.T. so that a more satisfactory measure of co-ordination can be achieved before they are submitted to the Ministry.
Sizes and Weights Concern Many The chief difficulty in connection with the size, loading and speeds of vehicles is that so many authorities are concerned. There are the Home Office, covering the Police, the local authorities, etc. Consequently, no decisive action can be taken until their views have been received. It is, however, of 'vital importance that this matter should be settled at the earliest pc§sible moment. Operators, both company and municipal in the passenger-transport field, are anxious to place their orders with the makers, but it must be appreciated that where vehicles with a width of only 7 ft. 6 ins. are purchased in any considerable numbers, they may, before anything like their useful life has been run, be outmoded by models built to the maximum width of 8 ft., which will probably eventually be permitted as a more or less general rule.
There is also the question of overall length. Some operators take the view that if a six-wheeler may have a length of 30 ft. this -should also be made to apply to the four-wheeler and that any technical problems could fairly easily be solved. As we have already pointed out, the difficulty is enhanced by the factor of road capacity. If we are to have motorways suitable for much higher speeds and larger operating units, these may eventually require the design of 'special types of vehicle exclusive to them, as was contemplated and partly achieved in connection with special buses and other vehicles designed to run on the German motor roads.
It appears, therefore, that the construction and use regulations will have to undergo a stage-by-.
• stage evolution. The proposed limits on passenger vehicles would no doubt be suitable for the majority of our more important highways, but eventually the latter should be improved to the • point when, so far as capacity and weight-bearing power are concerned, they should vie with the most advanced motomays, so that vehicles built for these should be able to make use of -ordinary roads, although not necessarily at the same speeds. If any other course were to be adopted it would mean that transport on the motorways would have to be fed by smaller vehicles, thus involving a transference of loads, whether of passengers or goods, which would detract from one of the essential virtues of road transport, which is door-to-door carriage.
Dazzle Problem Under Close Review' Apart from these questions of main dimensions the Ministry now has under consideration the matter of vehicle lighting, particularly as it concerns the problem of obviating dazzle. Reference to this matter is made elsewhere in this issue, but we may refer particularly to one interesting suggestion, and that is the possibility of arranging for vehicles to be equipped with some special form of sealed head-lamp unit which would permanently meet the anti-dazzle requirements. To make the use of such a device general, however, would take considerable time and, apparently, there is no intention of enforcing its employment so long as existing or other means are so employed as to be within any legal restrictions which are made. It is the official view, however, that such an important matter as the prevention of dazzle shotild not be left to voluntary effort.