`Dynamic' Traffic Policy Needed, says T.R.T.A. President
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SPEAKING at Manchester on Friday, Mr. K. C. Turner, president of the Traders Road Transport Association, congratulated the new Minister of Transport, Mr. I. Fraser, on his appointment —and commiserated with him in the formidable task that confronted him.
Referring to Mr. Ernest Marples, the new Minister's predecessor, Mr. Turner praised him as a man of many parts, who had won the respect of the transport industry for the tremendous courage and drive he had displayed in getting things done. "He leaves behind him heated arguments regarding the Bceching Plan, his traffic policy and a host of other questions, but no one will deny that he made his mark—and on the whole, a very good mark—on the transport scene."
In looking to the future, Mr. Turner said, we should expect positive recognition of the fact that this country depended on commercial road transport and would do so to an increasing extent. " This is not to say that the railways have not an important part to play--they have ", he went on. " But they must Win their traffic, on merit, in a competitive market. Traffic which cannot be won on merit has no place on the railways, and industrial efficiency can only be damaged by trying to force it tbere."
Secondly, we should look for a proper understanding of the vital role played by transport on own account. continued Mr. Turner. This was not just a matter of local deliveries into shops, he said, but of a highly specialized function in many fields of trade and industry, for which there was no effective substitute. "We shall look for a realistic appreciation of the factors which lead to the use of C-licensed vehiclesfactors like speed of delivery, punctuality, freedom from damage, specialized knowledge on the part of the driver, and so on."
Trunks and Towns
Thirdly, continued Mr. Turner, we needed a dynamic traffic policy, which must be two-pronged. It must include a speeding-up of the trunk road programme —and it must also embrace a real drive on Buchanan lines to deal with the urban problem. In the short-term, it involved a hard look at the relative priorities of traffic coming into our heavily congested towns. The present policy of trying to discourage commuter car traffic, and then introducing urban clearways to encourage more and more car drivers to pour into city bottlenecks seemed paradoxical, to say the least.
Mr. Turner was responding to the toast to "The Association" proposed by Maj. General Elmslie, the North Western Licensing Authority, on the occasion of the first Divisional Dinner held by the North Western, Merseyside and North Wales Division of the T.R.T.A. Mr. L. J. Hopkins was in the chair.