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bird's eye view by the Hawk I Keep it clean

2nd February 1973
Page 77
Page 77, 2nd February 1973 — bird's eye view by the Hawk I Keep it clean
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

iveryone's jumping on to the anti-porn lean-up-Britain band wagon, but my articular vote for an urgent clean up just ow would be directed at vans and lorries. know it is the season for dirty weather, ,ut we really haven't had unusually bad onditions in recent weeks; yet I am stonished at the number of really filthy orrunercial vehicles around.

This may seem a very minor matter, ut now that the public has become so wry conscious the industry cannot afford ) take a casual attitude towards elide appearance. And I've been articularly struck by the number of food )rries in light-coloured liveries which are Dvered in grime. Hardly the way to perJade the public that road transport is the ght way for its food to travel.

I don't have any shares in vehicle ashing-machine companies, so I'm not rindhig a personal axe. I suppose one :.ason for grimier trucks may be that )wer drivers "live" with their own lorry lese days and take a pride in keeping it lean. Shiftworking trucks, to get the tilization, has contributed to that.

I The seal test

someone had set out to put Gordon Iewell to the test, they could hardly have arra up with a more bizarre example tan the one which fate, or chance, mfronted him with.

Gordon is service manager of R. Paridge (Cassington) Ltd, of Oxford, and le evening recently he was presented ith the Chrysler UK Ltd High Quality lonour Award for outstanding workshop :twice to customers in 1972. Next morning was faced with breakdown of a customs& Dodge carrying — would you believe? two tanks full of sealions.

Little did Max Morris, owner of the ehicle and boss of International Sea Lions, now what expert hands he had fallen into! Le soon found out: not only did they fix le truck but they laid on 281b of mackerel ) keep the sealions happy.

Just as an unusual bonus on settling the ;.count, Mr Morris then proceeded to give le Partridge employees a special showing f the sealion act.

I Awful warning igures from America habitually have so any "train wheels" attached that they are ard to grasp. Like the fact that in 1972 'S vehicles covered 1,250,000,000,000 :hide miles — an increase of 5.4 per cent -1 1971.

But buried away in the statistics is a mple figure which is an alarming conillation of all that has been said about ritain not following the States' path on public transport. In 1972 in the USA, bus travel accounted for just under one-half of 1 per cent of all mileage. Cars represented nearly 80 per cent of the vehicles and accounted for over 79 per cent of the travel mileage. Trucks were 17 per cent of the vehicles and covered 19 per cent of the mileage.

• Cushions

I see that the USA is, however, taking a lead in a road safety area which could well be copied over here: installing crash cushions — known (inevitably in the States) as impact attenuators — around fixed hazards like roadside furniture on new freeways and on high-speed and highvolume main roads.

Apparently, 4500 Americans are killed every year in crashes with fixed objects like lamp standards, bridge piers, parapets and signs. Now the object will be to cushion them with sand-filled plastic containers, water-filled plastic cells or crushable metal drums.

• Live and learn

Concern with road affairs in this country seems sometimes to have rather less to do with urgent matters of moment. For example, at a GLC council meeting on January 23, Hackney's Labour member, E. S. Hillman, asked what was the last turnpike abolished in Greater London and whether there were any toll-gates or tollhouses operating in Greater London, on roads or bridges.

Richard Brew, chairman of the environmental planning committee, had the facts . . the last turnpike was the Greenwich and Woolwich Lower Road Trust, abolished on September 30, 1871; only remaining toll-road is College Road, Dulwich.

I can only hope it contributed to something useful.

IN Bus lingo

My recent piece about an advice booklet for Volvo bus drivers, published in French, has brought a response from Ulf Arensberg of AB Volvo, Gothenburg. He tells me the booklet is available in English — through Volvo (Ailsa) in the UK.


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