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From Our Berlin Correspondent.

9th November 1911
Page 11
Page 11, 9th November 1911 — From Our Berlin Correspondent.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Keywords : Avia, Truck, Chauffeur, Mot Test

The Wurtemberg Government is negotiating to take over the motorbus lines Oberndorf-Schramberg and Itottwell-Schramberg. Should negotiations lead to a transfer, the State will extend the lines in question.

The Stuttgart P.0, which has been using automobiles for some time past to carry mail bags and parcels, gives further proof of its appreciation of the modern road vehicle by ordering a voiturette for the express parcel-post town service. At Mannheim, too, a highpowered three-wheeler for transporting letters between the central office and the railway office has been acquired.

Austrian Motor Taxation.

Austria is to have motor taxation on the basis of li.p., and the revenue accruing therefrom will go towards road maintenance, the State taking 50 per cent. and the province where the motorist resides the rest. It is proposed to tax on b.h.p. Electromobiles will be subject to a uniform tax of 100 crowns. Neither the rates nor the method of determining them have secured the approval of the trade, which naturally fears a set-back in the demand for automobiles in general and for high-powered vehicles in particular. However, the Bill has one redeeming feature in that it excepts freight automobiles from taxation.

Thwarting the W.O.

Swiss military engineers have been experimenting with automobiles on some of the Alpine roads, their column consisting of three cars and as many freight vehicles, the latter loaded with oats, straw, and fuel. Of course, they got along swimmingly, notwithstanding many an awkward road-patch, occasional snowdrifts, and the general steepness of gradients, since it takes a lot nowadays to knock out a really firstclass make in the hands of an expert driver. They started at Meiringen, which is 598 metres above sea-level, and eventually reached the forts near the Furka Pass, 2,481 metres above sea-level, which was a splendid day's work, considering the difference in altitude and the fact that over 40 miles were negotiated. On the second day, they tackled several passes, amongst them the Gotthard, and, altogether, covered 100 miles. Most of the roads used are closed to motor traffic by cantonal laws, each canton having the right to legislate for itself without reference to its neighbour ; the Swiss peasants are not yet unanimous with regard to the right of the

automobile to the road. Amongst. the Graubiinders, considerable motorphobism prevails, and one peasant, strong—not to say impertinent in time consciousness of cantonal rights, actually or dered the military column off the road ! Think of it ! A Swiss bumpkin endeavouring to thwart the War Office in its efforts to bring the machinery of national defence up to date ! The column passed on its way, local autonomy or no local autonomy.

Austrian Subvention Trials.

Ten ". trains " have taken part in the Austrian " subvention " trials, which began at Vienna on 15th October, and finished again at that city on 7th November, the route passing through over-stiffish roads in Hungary as well as Austria. Officers of the Austrian Military Automobile Testing Section had charge of the contest, a military motor expert accompanying each vehicle. Ten " trains " appeared at the start, namely : A. 12ross, 1; Bussing, ; Bohemian Moravian Machine Co., 2; Fiat, ; Berna, 1; Hungarian Benz Co., 1; Johann

P uch, .1. An eleventh vehicle started out of competition. Attendant vehicles were also on the road with the competing column.

German Compensation Laws.

For ways that are dark commend me to Teutonic compensation laws in respect of road traffic. For instance, the Imperial Court of Appeal recently decided that the owner of a motor lorry is liable for any damage done by his driver when driving the vehicle beyond a point to which he has been sent by the owner. If, say, the chauffeur were instructed to proceed from Berlin to Stettin, and, having got there, instead of returning to Berlin, he elected to undertake a private trip to a coastal town, his master would have to pay for a smash-up between the coast and Stettin. In the case which came before the Imperial Court, a. chauffeur drove to see his mother after having done his regular business, but he had the misfortune to bowl over a horse and cart.

Another judgment is equally strange. It concerns the action of a medical man who was thrown out of a motorcab through collision with a tramcar. The evidence showed that. the tramcar driver, who was turning into a street where the motorcab was proceeding at a smart pace towards the tramcar, stopped his vehicle, so that the cab might pass in front of him, but the chauffeur, not having anticipated this stoppage, held to his road, and ran with great violence into the tramcar. The doctor sued for a yearly compensation of £750, and got it from the tramcar company, although the court agreed that the driver had made " no culpable mistake." So far As I can judge from the evidence, the chauffeur was every whit as much to blame as the tramcar driver, since he was running at a high speed along a busy thoroughfare intersected with , numerous cross-roads. We have our traffic troubles over here, you see !

Bringing their Pigs to Market.

" Wochenrnarkte " (weekly markets), which are held in the forenoon in certain public squares, are still a feature of Berlin and its suburbs, as if the boroughs themselves possessed no shops or universal stores! One can buy almost everything in a small way at such markets-from a bootlace to a side of bacon. County traders residing outside " Gross-Berlin" rent the stands, and many of them have to transport their goods a very long way, which means starting from home in the middle of the night and getting back again late in the evening. Some of the market people, I notice, are now using automobiles for this purpose in the struggle for existence.

No More Rainbow Cabs in Berlin.

Berlin's multi-coloured petroldrily en cabs, about which I have previously written, are doomed ; the President pf Police will have it so, and there is an end of the matter. After a certain date, this class of cab must be painted dark brown, whereas the electric cabs (which are mostly got up in a style that makes it difficult to distinguish them at first sight from the petroldriven ones) are to appear clad in ivory-white. Some cal) owners bail the decree with great satisfaction, for what special reasons I have not inquired, although there can be no doubt that many a proprietor of dowdy turn-outs has financially suffered through the fantastic colouration of vehicles belonging to enterprising rivals. Much of this decorative work is in bad taste, and quite out of place on public cabs ; still, as it obviously pleased the owners, and, besides, found favour with a section of the public, I fail to see why the President of Police should interfere, so long as the vehicles are satisfactory from a mechanical point of view. Indeed, it is questionable whether he has the legal authority to determine the colour of the cabs. Be that-as it may, the well-trained Berliner will bark for a. time, but eventually come to the heel of bureaucratic tutelage; he always does !


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