Road Transport Topics
Page 43
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By Our Special Parliamentary Correspondent
In Parliament
ALARMING ROAD CASUALTY FIGURES
QOCE more the House of Lords has urged tne implementing of some of the recommendations of the Select Committee on Road Accidents. Although no motion was adopted, Lord Alness, in raising the subject of road safety, had the support of _practically all the peers present.
He said that in September, 1,190 people were killed on the road, and in October, 919, compared with 554 and 641 in the corresponding months of 1938. More than half the casualties befell adult pedestrians, and a large proportion of them were killed during the black-out. These figures were profoundly alarming.
The Ministers of Transport and of Home Security a month ago held a conference of interests concerned, at which many useful and important suggestions were made, but a declaration of policy was overdue, The problem must be attacked from three directions—increased propaganda, lighting, and restrictions. The public should be enjoined to take unrernitting care in crossing the road, and unless imperative duty required it, to stay at home after dark. If counsels and injunctions to that effect were unheeded compulsion might be necessary.
Cyclists now had to carry rear lights, and that law should be enforced. Many cyclists disregarded it.
LOWER BLACK-OUT SPEED LIMIT
IN Lord Alness's opinion a speed of 30 m.p.h. was too high, during the black-out. It should be reduced to 20 m.p.h. or even 15 m.p.h.
He suggested that, in imposing restrictions in one direction, it might• he possible to counterbalance these by relaxations in another. For example, he would like to see one-way streets restored to their normal and useful condition to-day, notably Trafalgar Square and Aldwych round-abouts.
WAR NEEDED TO GET CYCLE TAIL LIGHTS
BUT for the war, said Lord Sandhurst, in support of Lord Alness, the Lords' Road Group would have brought four different motions dealing with the report of the Select Committee, which contained some magnificent suggestions.
It took a war to get the first of those introduced, namely, rear lights on cycles. The rest of them apparently had not been started.
One reform, not included in the report, was the prohibition of vehicles drawing up on the wrong side of the road after dark. Why was this
restricted to darkness, he inquired.
There were suggestions in the report which could be carried out without legislation. For example, the Minister had power to restrict pedestrians to crossing the road at a pedestrian crossing when there was one within 100 yds. Was there any conceivable reason, he asked, why in black-out hours the pedestrian should not be compelled to use the pedestrian crossing?
After referring to road offences, which in his opinion were criminal, he said the worst offenders were the Services, and the Air Force in particular. On the question of lighting, he felt that they should light the streets properly and switch the lights off when there was an air raid warning.
He agreed that the 30 m.p.h. limit was too high, but thought the solution was to take the limit off altogether and restore powers to the police, whom the speed limit had practically deprived of getting a conviction on a charge of dangerous driving.
TRIBUTE TO BUS DRIVERS AFTER further discussion Earl de la .Warr, Presideht of ;the Board of Education, replied to the debate. He moved that the only comfort from the appalling figures Lord Alness had given was that they did not include a marked increase in the number of casualties among children under 15.
He considered the latest type of headlamp mask an advance on anything hitherto devised. The painting of white guide lines on the roads had been of considerable use. Steps had been taken to modify time schedules of buses, to reduce speed.
He paid a tribute to bus drivers who had been going through a period of the most appalling strain.
DRASTIC MEASURES DEMANDED
VUITH regard to the principle of the VV black-out, continued Earl de la Warr, when London was fully illuminated the glow could be seen from 40 miles away. Even with an experimental system, tried some weeks ago, the light was visible from 16 miles.
With regard to reducing the 30 m.p.h. limit, the view of the Minister of Transport was that it was better to rely on the general law and to institute prosecutions for dangerous driving. It had been said that the power of prosecution had rather fallen into disuse as the result of the speed limit and he would bring the point to the notice of the Minister.
Lord Alness questioned whether the contemplated plans of the Minister of Transport were commensurate with a situation so tremendously serious as 3,000 people killed on the roads in the first three months of the war.
WELSH BUS GRIEVANCES REMEDIED
IT was stated by Captain Wallace, foe the information of Mr. J. Griffiths, that the Regional Transport Commissioner had -assured him that he had taken steps to remedy, so far as possible, all legitimate grievances regarding the public bus services in Wales, regarding which representations had recently been made to him.
BAD POSITION OF MOTOR TRADE
TO an inquiry by Mr. R. Morgan as to the regrettable economic position of many garage proprietors, automobile engineers and hauliers, Captain Wallace said that an investigation was already being made into this matter by the Departmental advisers mentioned by the Attorney-General on November 2. These advisers included a senior officer of his own Department.
HELP FOR ELECTRICS
THE Minister of Supply, Mr. Burgin, on being asked if he would release materials for the production, on a substantial scale, of vehicles propelled by electric batteries, as this would mean a saving in oil imports and shipping, stated that he would be prepared to consider' sympathetically applications for materials for the production of electric vehicles.
The Secretary for Mines, speaking of the attitude of his Department to electric vehicles, said that, whilst he viewed favourably developments which resulted in conserving petrol supplies, he would not feel justified in recommending more favourable treatment for battery-traction than was being given to producer gas.
TAXICAB PETROL RATIONS TT was stated by the Secretary for Mines that arrangements had been made, with the Commissioner of Police, by which petrol ration books for taxicabs, for the month of January. would be issued in advance of the application for a renewal of the licence.
SPEED SCHEDULES NOT TOO HIGH
D EPLYING to Mr. Sorensen, Captain IX-Wallace said he had assured himself that p.s.v. operators were not working to speeds unsafe in the blackout, H given' particulars of any case to the contrary, he would make inquiries. With regard to goods vehicles, there had been no modification of the statutory speed limits, except in the case of vehicles used by the armed Forces.
He also stated that it was the present policy that an all-red period for pedestrians, at traffic lights, should be provided where it was justified and practicable.