Wide or Narrow Double-deckers?
Page 58
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WITH regard to the letter from E. Greenwood, headed vv "Wide Buses on Narrow Roads" and published in your issue dated July 15, I cannot help feeling that his company are at fault in permitting vehicles 8 ft. wide to be used for services along narrow roads.
The suggestion that chassis manufacturers should produce 50 per cent. of bus chassis with a width of 7 ft. d in. and the other 50 per cent. 8 ft. wide, does not seem to apply. The makers supply such chassis only to operators' specifications, so that it is the operators who are responsible for. their use.
In Manchester there is only one service on which wide double-deckers are not permitted and this is operated by Leyland 7-ft. 6-in, buses of the PDI model.
Out of 370 Leyland double-deckers purchased by Manchester Corporation Transport since the last war, 50 are 7 ft. 6 in. wide, the remainder being 8 ft. All of these have the high-type body.
Heald Green, Cheshire. E. P. SYKES.
Invitation to Danger
A S if there are not enough flashing beacons, -winking 'lights and other confusing illuminations to harass the driver, an accessory manufacturer now has to produce a device which shows not only a red lamp to the rear, but an amber and a green one as well.
If this device is intended as a serious contribution to road safety, it can be condemned at once, because the size of its three lamp signals is almost microscopic. The green lamp is intended to show when the driver depresses the accelerator. What is a following driver to make of such a :signal? What is he to apprehend when the green turns to amber, as the foot is lifted?
It is taking a long time for the majority of road users to appreciate the significance of winking-light direction indicators, so how long it will take for the purpose of this novelty to be widely Understood is open to conjecture.
My feeling is that this device only just scrapes past the letter of the law in its display of amber and green lights to the rear. To the ordinary driver on a dark night, to see a green light ahead from this accessory would be an invitation to danger.
Southall, Middx. NORMAN f3RITAIN.
Rate Schedule for Livestock
rIN reading your issue dated July 1, 1955, I was interested in the reference to my Eastern Area rate schedule, but I think that perhaps one or two points should be cleared up.
First, before the schedule was .even committed to paper I called a meeting of the Eastern Area livestock operators through the good auspices of the Road
Haulage Association and put the suggestion to them. At that meeting it was agreed to put the system into operation on a three months' trial basis. As to the success of the schedule, I leave you to judge when I tell you that, to date, out of approximately 150 hauliers used by The Fatstock Marketing Corporation, EasternArea., not more than six disagree with the schedule:
Eastern Area took over the working of Lincolnshire as from April 1, and again I met the Lincs. hauliers and put the suggestion to them, stressing that there was no intimation of thrusting the schedule upon them in a dictatorial manner. Again the Lincs. hauliers agreed to use the schedule.
I. would like to point out that when a " hardship " load occurs, which on the odd occasion is unavoidable, the haulier has two forms of cover, first that we pay' for a minimum load of six cattle or 40-sheep. and, secondly, that he can apply to me for consideration of the "case." So far we have always reached an amicable arrangement between haulier anii the F.M.C.
The final point is that, your article refers to cattle as being carried from Islington to Mundesley, which is rather a case of the cart before the horse.. Actually, the cattle are collected from farms and taken to slaughterhouses, and our London slaughterhouse is at Islington.
A. J. WILSON, Area Transport Officer, The Fatstock Marketing Corporation, Ltd. • Cambridge.
Accident " Crawl " Classed as Absurd
ARE we, your readers, really
supposed to take seriously the extraordinary suggestion in your correspondence columns of July 22, under the heading '! Psychological War on Accidents," this being that after a fatal accident on a road an 8 m.p.h. limit should 'be imposed around the spot for a period of a week?
Perhaps either Mr. T. C. Foley or Mr. G. Hudson would answer these questions:— (a) How could .such a limit be enforced when, already, it seems impossible to enforce the 30 m.p.h. limit?
(b) Why,, if a pedestrian decides to step off the pavement in front of a moving vehicle, all traffic in that area must, if the accident proves to be fatal, crawl at 8 m.p.h. for a Week? Surely, the resulting congestion and chase to get away from the "
crawl" would be far more likely to cause accidents.
(c) Why not extend the idea to the home, where accidents, fatal and non-fatal, are more numerous than on the road, or to the factory or mine, and have a general " go-slow " policy for a week after each accident, although how this would prevent further accidents I have not the slightest idea? '
H. W. B. RICHARDS, Managing Director,
Whitchurch, Shrops. Salopia Saloon Coaches, Ltd.