Road Transport Topics
Page 81
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
In Parliament
THE 30 M.P.H. SPEED LIMIT.
SEVERAL members having expressed a desire for the immediate application of the 30 ni_p.h. speed limit, the Minister, of Transport told the House of Commons that he was formally asking local authorities to consider what roads in built-up areas should be exempted from the limit and what roads, although not in built-up areas, should be subject to the limit. He hoped to be able to settle the matter by the New Year.
PEDESTRIAN CROSSING PLACES.
THE Minister supplied the House with several items of information relating to the new crossing places in London. It was stated that the actual location of each crossing place was settled in consultation between representatives of the local authority concerned, of the police and of the Ministry of Transport, in accordance with principles which had commended themselves to the London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory Committee. From July 9, when uncontrolled crossing places were first laid down, to October 31, four persons were killed and 194 injured on such crossings in the Metropolitan Police Area. He was unable to state in how many cases motor vehicles were involved. Police proceedings had been authorized in 26 of these cases up to the present. The figures for all the 5,000 crossing places in the City of London and the Metropolitan Police Area, as from June 11, when crossing places were first laid down, to the end of October, were four killed and 341 injured.
THE COST OF ERECTING THE BEACONS.
THE cost of a complete beacon, ineluding that of erection, the Minister continued, was 30s. About 5,000 pedestrian crossing places had been provided, the majority of which had or were being provided with beacons.
THE SILENT ZONE.
CCORDING to the Minister of CATransport,the institution: of the silent zone has met with overwhelming approval. Its primary object, he pointed out, was not to promote safety, but for the benefit 61 workers and the sick. Evidence showed that this purpose had been achieved without increase in the number of accidents, The Home Secretary -stated that up to the present there had been no prosecutions for sounding motor horns after 11.30 p.m. in London, but between August 27, when the regulations commenced, and the end of September 1,134 verbal warnings had been given. jk AR. M'Keag was informed that the /VIfigures of convictions during the past three years for failing to give audible warning of approach or failing to have vehicles fitted with a proper instrument for doing so were not available. As to Mr. M'Keag's inquiry whether, in view of the new orders regarding silence on the roads, it was proposed to repeal Section 59 (b) of the Road Traffic Act, 1930, and to withdraw Nos. 15 and 72 of the Motor Vehicles (Construction and Use) Regulations, 1931, which prescribed these offences, Mr. Hore-Belisha pointed out that the regulations prohibiting the use of motor horns during the night hours made the necessary modifications in existing regulations. Section 59 (1) (b) of the Road Traffic Act did not relate to motor vehicles at all, and no question of the need for its repeal therefore arose.
COMPARISON OF ACCIDENTS.
STATIS T ICS of road accidents during the first nine months of this year, as compared with last year, were requested by Mr. Parkinson, and Mr. Hore-Belisha stated that in the first nine months of 1933 the deaths numbered 5,243, but, as the weekly returns dated from only the middle of March last, it was not possible to give exact figures for the first nine months of this year. Taking the period as a whole, the number of fatal accidents appeared to have been approximately the same as last year, but comparison for the past two months of the period showed that there had been a definite improvement.
Statistics of persons injured during 1933 were available for only the year as a whole, but the figure for the first nine months was estimated at approximately 164,100. For the corresponding period of this year the number was approximately 176,200. The rate of increase over last year had been falling steadily throughout the past two mouths.
The Home Secretary supplied the following figures showing the ages of persons killed and injured by motor vehicles in road accidents, recorded by the Metropolitan Police in the six months ended June 30, 1934 :—Under 5 years old, 21 killed, 599 injured; from 5 to 15 years old, 90 killed, 3,372 injured; over 15 years old, 474 killed, 16,901 injured. OBSTRUCTION BY MAIL VANS.
THE Postmaster-General stated that he was aware of the complaint that there was sometimes unreasonable obstruction in the streets by postal vans, and he was taking steps to avoid such obstruction. The change-over from horses to motors, he added, had been largely effected.
REFLECTORS ON PEDAL CYCLES.
THE • Home Secretary stated that offenders against the regulations requiring rear red reflectors and white discs or strips on pedal cycles at night are, of course, liable to prosecution, but in order to allow time for the regulations to become better known he has suggested to the police, with the concurrence of the Minister of Transport, that for a short time the contraventions should be dealt with by way of caution rather than by prosecution.
AUTOMATIC SWITCHES IN AEROPLANES.
THE Under-Secretary of State for Air, upon being asked whether any safety switch had yet been invented for automatically cutting out the electric circuits in aeroplane engines in the event of violent impact, stated that three designs of such switches had been investigated and tested. Each fulfilled the functions for which it was designed, and approval had been given for their use in civil aircraft.
COMMERCIAL AIR POLICY.
REFERENCE having been made to the intention to inaugurate a regular transatlantic service with the Graf Zeppelin and a new German airship, Sir P. Sassoon, Under-Secretary of State for Air, stated that the Air Ministry keeps in the closest touch with airship development in other countries.
The recent England-Australia flight has led to the interrogation of the Government regarding the desirability of increased speed in British commercial air services to distant parts of the Empire. Sir P. Sassoon declared that important as was the speed factor in commercial air-transport development, safety, reliability, regularity and comfort had also to be taken into account. Imperial Airways, he said, during the three months July to September carried over three times as many passengers as Air France on the London-Paris route. Further, the French figures showed a decline of nearly 30 per cent.
The annual subsidy, he continued, paid to imperial Airways, Ltd., was materially lower than those paid in such countries as the United States, France, Germany and Italy, largely because the object of the British subsidy was to develop air transport on a sound , commercial basis. As regards reliability, Imperial Airways had an unrivalled record.
The Prime Minister stated that the Government had no intention of removing civil aviation from the Air Ministry.