Traffic Rise Outstrips Improvements
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IT cannot yet be said that road improvements in the capital are keeping pace with the growth of traffic. As more vehicles are brought on to overcrowded roads, so it becomes more necessary to regulate the use of the roads to the best advantage.
This is stated by the London and Home Counties Traffic Advisory. Committee in their 1958 report (Stationery Office, 4s. 6d.), which was published on Monday.
Physical improvements to the whole ,f London's major internal road system must progress with all speed, say the committee. A thorough traffic-engineering review of key intersections should he carried out, and facilities provided for loading and unloading goods vehicles off the main thoroughfares.
Conflicts over the sharing of space on the highway between moving traffic and vehicles stopping at shops to load unload could hest be avoided by proper planning. Where existing shopping centres have grown up haphazardly along main routes, loading bans would eventually have to be enforced.
The committee regret the decision by the Minister of Agriculture that Covent Garden market should not be entirely removed. Those responsible for traffic conditions in the area were now confronted with a challenge which would require all their ingenuity to meet.
REMOTE CONTROL DAMAGES PASSENGER TRANSPORT
" DELAYS arising from remote control
of fares and services are destroying the public-utility value of passenger transport. It precludes operators from entering into any agreement with the public to amend fares and services until the Traffic Commissioners have considered and approved proposals."
This was stated yesterday by Mr. J. E. Cowderoy, former development officer of the London Transport Executive, when he addressed the Bournemouth-Poole group of the Institute of Transport.
The law needed amendment to permit the adoption of area schemes which would enable fares and services to be determined within the respective zones covered by them.