Road Transport Topics in Parliament
Page 34
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By Our Special Parliamentary Correspondent
ROAD-TRANSPORT CHAMPIONING FEATURE OF PAST SESSION.
PARLIAMENT rose for the summer vacation last Friday and will reassemble on October 21, During the past year it has not troubled roadtransport interests unduly.
A bill was passed into law giving the Minister power to extend the duration of licences and to legalize the separate payment of fares by taxicab passengers on special occasions. • The. only question raised in the Budget was the lack of 'uniformity in considering container weight as a part of vehicle weight.
Many Members interested themselves in this matter, which was amicably settled with the Government.
One of the most striking features of the session has been the more pronounced identification of advocate's of transport interests in parliamentary centroversy. There are more Members to-day ready and qualified to champion
• those interests than have ever ventured to open their lips in past years. Consequently points of view are expressed with more impressive authority and greater' influence to theTreasury Bench. There is no appearance yet of any slackening in the daily crop of wide-ranging questions addressed by Members to the Minister of Transport.
Mr: Burgin has only recently entered upon his difficult job, but there is good promise of his winning' general approval.
CAMBRIDGE ROAD TO BE TWO-WAY.
DETWEEN Lordship Lane, Wood
Green and the North Circular Road, Edmonton, the carriageway of the Cambridge Arterial Road is to be duplicated, and it was announced by the Minister that Middlesex' County Council will shortly be considering tenders for the execution, of this work.
PLANS TO REBUILD WEAK BRIDGES.
I N reply to .Mr. Lennox-Boyd, who asked how many of the 5,000 road bridges classified as unsafe for heavy traffic were to be reconstructed, Mr. Burgin said that the Royal 'Commission on Transport, in its final report issued in 1930, gave the approximate number of weak bridges as 7,000, but he was,unable to state the exact number of bridges which were to-day unsafe for heavy traffic.
Some 2,500 weak bridges were privaitely owned, and when the appropriate highway authority took over responsibility for maintaining one of
• these, a grant, at the exceptional rate of 75 per cent., was available towards the cost of reconstruction. Proposals to rebuild 150 such bridges during 1938-39 had been submitted, . Bridges over railways in Great Britain, which had been classified as 'weak, numbered 2,050. Proposals for reconstructing 1,015 of these had been notified. u28 CROSSINGS IGNORED: MINISTER PAINED,
(IN the matter of pedestrian crossings, ‘-.1 Lieut.-Colonel Moore-Brabazon referred to the recent High Court decision on regulations relating to their use. He wished to know whether Mr. Burgin was satisfied with the position as it now stood, or whether he intended to withdraw the present regulations and sub
stitute others. " The answer to the first part of the question," said the Minister, "is in the affirmative; to the second part, that I am more satisfied with the regulations themselves than with the observance of their spirit by drivers or. pedestrians, and to the third part, that I have no such intention at present, but am closely observing conditions."
SMALL PERCENTAGE OF • ACCIDENTS DUE TO ALCOHOL.
I T was suggested by Mr. Mathers that the analysis of accidents attributed to alcoholic liquor should be improved to cover all cases where drink had been consumed. Mr. Burgin' said that, of the 100,000 road accidents involving personal injury during the six months April to September, 1936, the reporting authorities attributed to drivers, cyclists, or pedestrians under the influence of drink or drugs (as the sole or main cause) only 14 fatal and 538. non-fatal accidents ( per cent.) and (as a contributory cause) 10 fatal and 61 non-fatal accidents. It would not be practicable to obtain the data upon which to make the further analysis suggested.
MORE AERIAL ROAD SURVEYS TO BE MADE.
COMMENTING on the air survey he 4.--"recently made of the Great North Road, Mr. Burgin spoke in praise of this form of studying road requirements. It was of madoubted value, he remarked, for certain purposes, for example, with regard to the question whether a town should be by-passed.
On the other handy he expressed the view that surveys made from the road were essential for other purposes. He added that it is his intention to employ both methods as the circumstances warrant.
NO OIL ENGINES USED IN BRITISH AIRCRAFT.
THE Under-Secretary of State for Air, Lieut.-Colonel Muirhead, informed the House that there were at present no oil engines in use in civil aircraft registered in the United Kingdom or in Royal Air Force squadrons, but experiments had been carriedout with such engines and these would be continued.
DE RESTRICTION INCREASES LIVERPOOL'S ACCIDENTS.
SINCE certain roads in Liverpool hao been derestricted, said Mr. Fyfe, the number of accidents, which had declined during a comparative period of restriction, had increased by nearly 50 per cent. He asked the Minister to give full consideration to the advisability of using his powers under Section 1, subsection (6), of the 1934 Act, and to the reimposing of a speed limit. .
Mr. Burgin replied that the report had not been brought to his notice, and no representation in the matter had been made to him by the Council since the Order of August 10, 1936. He would, of course; be prepared to consider any representation that might be made by the responsible local authority.
DRIVING TESTS OF EX-SERVICE MEN UNFAIR?
ATTENTION was called by Major Owen to the disability imposed on ex-Service men who had qualified, while on service abroad, for licences to drive motor vehicles by Section 6 ( ) of the Road Traffic Act. He asked the Minister if he would amend this section so as to enable such men to take out driving licences in this country without obtaining provisional licences 'and undergoing the test of competence prescribed by the Motor Vehicles (Driving
Licences) Regulations. • • • • Mr. Burgin pointed out that under the existing regulations the Board of Admiralty, .the Army Council and the Air Council weie already empowered to conduct tests of members of His Majesty's forces without charge.'
QUALIFICATIONS OF HACKNEYCARRIAGE EXAMINERS-.
THE following questions were . addressed to the Minister by Mr. Groves: How many inspectors were engaged in the hackney-carriage licensing department of the Metropolitan area and in what manner Was the stall recruited; whether those, who satisfied themselves that the bodies of trams and buses were safe for the conveyance of the public, were men who had had practical training in coachbuilding and mit merely those with school instruction; and whether, if no such practice prevailed, he would consult the National Union Of Vehicle Builders to ensure that all available advice and experience was at the dis.posal of his department.
Mr. Burgin answered that the licensing of trams and buses in the Metropolitan Area was the responsibility of the Metropolitan Traffic Commissioner. He had the assistance of a stall of certifying officers and vehicle examiners, who were required to have had practical experience in the construction or maintenance of motor vehicles.