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In Parliament
By Our Special Parliamentary Correspondent
PARLIAMENT DEMANDS UNIFORM ROAD LIGHTING.
THE House of Commons had the 1 third debate of the session on road questions last week, when the lighting of roads and the interim report of the Departmental Committee came under review. The subject arose on an amendment, by Mr. Salt, that" having regard to the number of road accidents that occur after dark and to the desirability of affording adequate illumin
ation for the convenience and safety of the public and for the prevention of crime, it is expedient that the lighting of highways shoiildbe dealt with on
a national baSis.". .
Mr. Salt attributed the present bad conditions to the fact that lighting was controlled by 1,400 local authorities. He mentioned an arterial road near London 13 miles in length with 27 variations of lighting standards. This would give a 30-m.p.h. driver a change of lighting every 60 seconds. Constant changes of that kind were dangerous and conduced to accidents. It • was obvious that, until road lighting was taken out of the hands of the local authorities and put under the central control of the Ministry of Transport, such a state of affairs would continue.
From the ,Home Office Report on Fatal Road Accidents in '1983, he observed that the accidents between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. were 25 per cent. greater in November, December and January than in May, June and July. when these hours were light. Comparing the deaths in connection with public vehicles, the increase in the winter months was 50 per cent., In the case of light commercial vehicles there were 66 per cent, more deaths in the winter than in the summer.
JUSTIFICATION FOR EXPENDITURE.
I T was suggested that some 10,000 miles could be lit hy floodlighting, with lamps suspended 25 feet high, for £3,500,000 4,000,000 per annum. In the review on the subject of lighting which took place at the Public Works and Transport Congress in November last, the extent of the roads necessary to be lit was given as 8,000 miles and the cost as £2,500,000 per annum. The expenditure should effect a saving of some 700 deaths and 19,000 injuries. Moreover, he believed that the economic saving to the country would balance the cost, Most of the money would be spent in wages and decreasing unemployment.
In Liverpool they used a sodium lamp. Some 7,000,000 vehicles had passed through the Mersey Tunnel without a single accident due to defective lighting.
Croydon was now lighting the new by-pass at Purley for 6,000 yards by a similar method. Birmingham used the electric-discharge lamp, which was entirely satisfactory. This light was capable of penetrating mist and fog.
HOTCH-POTCH TRUNK THOROUGHFARES.
TRANSPORT was hindered by a 1 system unqualified for its service, said Mr. Lyons. Upon any trunk road to-day one saw a hotch-ptitch of surfaces, widths, lighting, gradient and foundation. Could there not be established some kind of Central authority? Lighting that was essential for safe transport and the safety of the public was neglected by almost every local authority in the country.
Mr. Denman spoke against the amendment. He denied absolutely that light was a cause of safety for motorists. He agreed with the proposal of standardized lighting, but his main objection was one of finance.
Had thc money, paid into the Road Fund, been. utilized for the purposes, of the road, said Mr. Parkinson, a large number of lives might have been saved. He stressed the importance of uniformity in lighting; also the de-. sirability of lighter coloured surfaces.
Sir W. Brass thought there should he an efficient standardized system of lighting on roads, in built-up areas.
COUNTY COUNCILS URGED TO USE LIGHTING POWERS,
REPLYING to the debate, Captain A. Hudson said that with one slight dissenting voice there had been almost universal approval of the principle of the amendment. The Ministry ot Transport agreed that the creation of a national standard of lighting over the, whole country, for what might be called the most important roads, was the goal to he attained, and it was trying to move towards it.
In view of the already generous grants to the maintenance of roads, however, the Government did not feel at the present moment that it could contemplate the necessary legislation to that end.
Under the Road Traffic Act of 1934, Section 23, county councils were enabled, in default a action by the appropriate lighting authorities, to exercise' lighting powers themselves and to charge the cost to the county rate. The county councils had not used this power to any great extent. On April 27 last, a letter. had been sent to them urging them to do so, and the Government hoped that they would set up within their areas really adequate systems of lighting.
The amendment was withdrawn, DIRECTION INDICATORS NOT COMPULSORY.
ATTENTION was drawn by Mr. W. Roberts to the difficulty of seeing from behind the signals made by the drivers of large vehicles, and the advisability of making it compulsory for such vehicles to he equipped with some type of automatic signal.
Mr. Hore-Belisha said the Regulations prescribed that the driver's seat should be so placed as to permit him to signal by hand. It had not hitherto been found desirable to make the fitting of mechanical indicators compulsory on any vehicle.
NEW BILL TO AMEND DRIVERS' LICENCE LAW.
UI NDER a Bill presented by Mr. S. 1/4/Storey, it is provided that Licensing Authorities may issue provisional licences to permit persons to learn to drive heavy goods vehicles. Another clause stipulates that a man who, on the instructions of a licensed driver, acts as a steersman on a vehicle limited to 5 m.p.h., need not hold a licence under the Road Traffic Acts.
The Bill was considered, on Tuesday, by a Standing Committee of the House of Commons and was ordered to be reported to the House.