R AILWAY officials in this country are rather apt to treat
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their decreasing revenues as something of a national character. The news now comes to hand that the German State Railway Company has lost 88 million pounds in 1930. The long-distance and highgrade traffic has been so affected by roadtransport competition that rates have had to be revised and, just like their British counterparts, the officials are pressing for legislation to suppress the road services. Railway decline is international and its causes so obvious that it is all the greater wonder that wiser counsels do not prevail among those who have long held transport monopolies.
EMPLOYEES of many of our larger commercial motor manufacturers are extremely well situated with regard to facilities for sport. For example, there are many cricket grounds in use by professional teams _which have not the amenities of that in use at the Leyland works, "whilst many clubs might well envy the facilities provided at Basingstoke by John I. Thornycroft and Co., Ltd. A USEFUL competition for a satisfactory design of station to deal with the petrol filling and servicing of motor vehicles was recently organized by the Incorporated Association of Architects and Sur B18 veyors with the idea of encouraging architects to build more sightly stations than those which, in many cases, disfigure the roadside up and down our country. Another way of improving such stations has been adopted in the Province of Ontario, Canada, where a form of graduated taxation exists. Stations close to the road pay the most, those standing back a little the next highest, and so on, until the taxation is altogether lifted where they are far back. One advantage of this system is that the highway is not obstructed by vehicles waiting to fill up.
IN America, which is noted for its comprehensive statistical records of all kinds, a new method of visualizing the growth of the motor business has been evolved. Last year, it is estimated, motor vehicles covered 162 billion miles in America, this total being equal to 64s million trips around the earth. Going farther, it has been calculated that a vehicle which, in ayear, travelled for this distance, would circuit the earth in 4.8 seconds. Alternatively, the vehicle could make a round trip to the moon once every 93 seconds—altogether 340,000 in 12 months.
THERE are many operators who do not realize the serious effect of head winds upon fuel consumption. An interesting example was afforded recently in one of our road tests. When travelling northwards against the wind, and using top gear for the entire distance, one gallon sufficed for 10.05 miles. In the reverse direction, over the same course, it was necessary to employ third gear for .7 mile owing to two seiere hills, but the wind was, of course, behind us. In this case a gallon of fuel lasted 11.125 miles. The difference is sufficiently striking to show that wind alone can account for many of the discrepancies in fuel consumption which so often puzzle operators.
IT seems likely that there will be considerable opposition to the draft regulations dealing with dazzle. The partiality of the Ministry for dipping lights is perhaps understandable, but the road-using community is by no means unanimous that such a scheme is desirable from every point of view. For example, should a vehicle, travelling at 30 m.p.h., turn a gradual bend and come into the beam of a vehicle going in the opposite direction, both drivers would dip their lights. In this way there might easily be a black area between the vehicles while they are both travelling fast. To dip or switch off only the off-side lamp in each case is safer ; each driver continues his course by the light of the nearside lamp and the black area is almost negligible ; too sudden a change of light is dangerous.
IN Paris an organization with the title of "The Association of Polyglot Taxi Drivers" has been formed, its members being men who have a working knowledge of several languages. This body has been organized for the benefit of foreign visitors to the Colonial Exhibition, and by its aid it will be possible for practically anyone to hire a taxicab with a driver who can speak hi or her own language.