Come out fighting!
Page 54
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SPEAKING as a much abused and ill-thought-of bus driver, may I offer the following comments on road transport matters in general. For a long time i have followed with interest the great matters now being debated in the Wood Inquiry, the Armitage Report, the proposed I ondon lorry ban, the Guildford :orry ban and a host of other similar proposals which, if they all were to be implemented, would in my opinion spell the end of road transport in this country.
What strikes me most, however, in all these matters is the defensive attitude adopted by spokesmen of the FTA and RHA. I would say to them, come out of your corners fighting, gentlemen. The real enemy of society is not the heavy lorry but the selfish car driver who causes far more delay, frustration and anger in one day than the average lorry driver does in a full year.
An example of this can be gained by driving in London on any weekend when no lorries are on the roads. On one Sunday evening in 1977 it took me one full hour to drive from the end of Vauxhall bridge the mile distance to Parliament Square. I then found the only way to enter the massed ranks of cars and taxies was to shove through in the same way as all the other ignorant car drivers and although I accomplished this it was only at the pain of being very narrowly missed by a baboon who passed for a taxi driver. In all this congestion there were no lorries at all, only cars and taxis.
The need for bypass roads is always blamed upon the heavy lorry but this is not always true. On a Bank Holiday Monday in 19761quaued for three hours in an attempt to pass through the little town of Skioton. Again, the cause of the congestion was not the heavy lorry but the sheer number of cars, tile majority of whom appeared to be towing :aravans on which they pay no road tax yet which take up a great amount of road space. I daresay that if road tax had been levied on those caravans the revenue raised would have paid in full for a bypass, The essence of what I am trying to say is that any traffic authority anywhere, far from considering lorry bans, should implement instead a total ban on car passenger traffic which would have the effect of freeing our towns and city's from numbing congestion and at the same time make the roads safe for pedestrians.
Add to this the benefits to be gained by the road hauliers and bus companies, whose vehicles would have uninterrupted traffic paths and uncluttered loading zones, with all that would mean to a saving in journey times and fuel costs.
The disadvantages to the car driver, perhaps no more than minimal, could be offset by an increase in passenger transport investment.
The world's known oil resources are not infinite and are predicted to run out or to be very close to that point by the turn of the century and it would appear to me that some future Government will have to say we are running short of oil, we must curtail petrol production for cars and must give every priority to producing DERV for trucks, and for buses.
G. F. E. ELSWORH 38 Honeywell St Barnsley