Action Needed
Page 35
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THERE are a surprising number of ways in which to lose money. At one end of the " scale " it can be lost simply by tipping it down the nearest drain; the opposite end of it carries more subtle methods. And in between are countless variations. Among the most subtle methods is traffic congestion. This money-waster is not now so subtle as it once was, because it is becoming increasingly recognized for what it is—one of the biggest enemies, if not the biggest, of efficient commercial road transport operation.
Congestion affects everyone equally. Buses idle away fuel as they wait, locked in a mass of traffic, while would-be passengers complain of " inefficiency " and turn to private transport. Eventually, to make up time, the bus is turned short, to the annoyance of more passengers. Yet it is not the bus-operators' fault—not, indeed, their wish. Vans and lorries, caught in the same traffic jams, are unable to carry out all their deliveries because of the time wasted in congested streets. Now, increasingly often, when they finally get to their destination it is only to find that, in an attempt to keep traffic moving, they have been forbidden to load or unload. More time and money are wasted. The operators are, occasionally, forced to fight the traffic-control authorities when the two parties should be working together.
This particular theme can be developed forever. Every operator— bus, coach, C-licensee or haulier—knows it, and knows it to be true. Seldom has it been more soberly hammered home, however, than in these words: "If congestion is not controlled, then London, as we know it, is doomed." The man who said that was the one man, more than anyone else, whose task it is to achieve control of the capital's traffic, Mr. Alex Samuels, chairman of the London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee, chairman or member of several other similar bodies, and the Minister of Transport's closest adviser on the subject.
"If congestion is not controlled, then London, as we know it, is doomed." Substitute Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow or any other urban centre and the effect of Mr_ Samuel's warning is the same. It is a grim warning, and a true one.
Everyone makes some attempt to combat congestion, but it is on a limited, personal scale. Too often private cars get away with it at the price of commercial transport operators' costs soaring. This grave problem worsens every day. The Minister of Transpbrt should recognize the problem for what it is, a national one. He should appoint a traffic controller, give him sufficient powers to act, and appoint a small committee of transport operators, motorists and other interests to formulate the policy under which the controller would work. And he should do it now,