The Motor Omnibus in Relation to Public Health.*
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No explanation is needed, at a date when upwards of one thousand motor omnibuses are on order for use in the United Kingdom atone, for the presentation of a paper dealing with these vehicles before this section of the Congress, in response to your secretary's invitation. This imminent development of mechanical r Tad transport bears a considerable ratio to the total number of electric tramcars at present employed in the country, and its distinct effects are bound to be apparent within ix months. There is no occasion to dilate upon the advantag,3s of quick passenger transit in relation to the relief of overcrowding at a meeting of the Royal ' Institute of Public Health, but there are several features peculiar to the motor omnibus which it is desirable to review in this connection. It is true that our great metropolis is impenetrable to electric traction as regards the inner zone, which gives the dirigible motor omnibus an unchal. lenged field in many parts of London, except for horse-drawn omnibuses, which are unable to compete effectively. It is also worthy of nc.te that in provincial towns having a population belbw tso,000, and where the problem of public conveyance is often shamefully neglected by the monopolist enterprises which hold the routes, the motor omnibus now offers a sound alternative to electric traction, although it is probably in urban districts having a population ranging between 30,000 and /moo° that the benefits of the motor omnibus to public health will be most marked. Again, interurban and purely country services can be embraced by the motor omnibus, because there is no track to lay and because a high aggregate mileage can be made up on several routes.
There is no harm, before proceeding to the question of working costs, in recapitulating a few of the benefits conferred upon any district by an adequate service of public conveyances. Immunity from a serious wetting, secured at the cost of a penny, often saves a man or woman from rheumatic fever or other serious consequences. The mid-day meal can be taken at home, in relative peace and quietness, instead of in some publichouse or alley-way adjoining the
factory. 1,Vhen the weather is fine, the working man can take his wife and family out for an "air bath " such as he could not obtain other than by having at his disposal an efficient service of mechanical vehicles. Then it has to be taken into account that a horse-drawn service worsens those conditions of the road surface which tend to increase the rate of infantile mortality during the autumn, and which, from the presence of bacilli cob communis in the particles of dust which are so freely blown about in dry weather, are not without their ill-effects upon adults. The motor omnibus possesses no such terrors. Again, experience is teaching us that the speed of the motor omnibus, with its exhilarating influences upon the whole system, exceeds even that of the electric tram, which is at the disposal of so many already, but which can only with difficulty be extended to areas where the population is not sufficiently dense to justify a sufficiently frequent service to cover the heavy proportion of capital expenditure incurred for permanent way and track equipment. This question of speed of travel, and the degree in which it is appreciated by the working classes of the country, is probably one of the most striking instances of accommodation to circumstances that has been witnessed during the last few years. Whoever hears an outcry from working men against rapid transit nowadays, unless in the particular connection of dusty roads in the country? They would be quite happy to see electric trams allowed to travel at an average speed of fifteen miles an hour, as is admittedly clone in more than one great city at the present time. A saving of time, however, is not the only consideration, although a material one, because one's degree of mental activity appears to respond automatically to the greater rates of progression which may be experienced to-day.
One important branch of development, which furnishes, perhaps, the most direct example of the relation between motor omnibuses and public health questions, is found in their growing adoption for the purpose oi giving transit facilities where no other means of passenger conveyance can be admissible. The Great Western Railway Company, as an instance of this, has upwards of sixty motor omnibuses in use at the present moment, and a very large number on
order for early delivery, solely to link up its system with beautiful spots in the country and on the coast which have hitherto been inaccessible to any but the leisured classes and others possessing comparatively large means. Not only is this development of motor omnibuses of great benefit from the point of view of seeing the country, but, by the introduction of composite vehicles, market garden produce is taken to the main line stations and quickly sent to centres of consumption. It is difficult to estimate how great an effect a steady supply of fresh vegetables, eggs, butter, and other farm or dairy produce must have upon the general state of the public health in our large towns. The motor omnibus, by taking such small consignments incidentally to its ordinary functions of conveying passengers will be a great factor in this desirable consummation.
There is little question that some points will suggest themselves to a number of those present as likely to benefit the public health, and I hope these will be introduced in the discussion hereafter, and possibly something will be said about the fumes which escape from motor omnibuses. If so, I am quite prepared to deal with that matter in my reply, because it is a phase of construction and lubrication which will be quickly remedied. Of course, the question of economy is
closely wrapped up with the problem of motor omnibus services, and it is satisfactory to me to he in a position to give positive and accurate working costs, which are not estimates or guesses, but which have been ascertained as the outcome of several years' running on commercial lines. The figures which I give may be taken as the present maximum cost of operation, granting fair management and supervision on the part of those who own the vehicles, with the added advantage of assured reductions with any degree of skilled management or organisation which may prove superior to the normal All will agree that the question of economy, with appropriate statistics, can rightly be introduced, for it will readily be conceded that public health and efficiency should walk hand in-hand with a reasonable study of financial prospects. We not infrequently see startling estimates based solely on the fact that a particular vehicle has run so many thousand miles without any repairs, with a redu..ed cost per car mile based on the assumption that maintenance will never be necessary. I even came across one set of estimates where tyres were put down at nil, because those purchased with the vehicle were untouched at the end of 3,000 miles. Further, in approaching statistics of this character, where a car mile basis is generally adopted, the outstanding feature in favour of the motor omnibus is its ability to serve two or any number of routes according to the traffic offering at various periods of the day or week or year. When we accept the fact that electric traction, inclusive of debt charges and adequate provision for renewals and depreciation, can be conducted successfully on takings averaging lod. per car mile, it cannot be too clearly emphasised that such results are subject to upheaval unless a large number of car miles per day per mile of track are run. The determination of the exact dividing
line for any particular locality naturally calls for special local knowledge, but a few broad facts are not without interest.
Although motor omnibuses have, so far, been constructed to carry only from 12 to 36 passengers, there is no reason why this capacity should not be increased to some extent, and even now 42-seated vehicles are on offer, whilst experience has proved that the cost of operation per mile is very slightly greater for the larger sizes. In drawing attention to this fact, I do not wish to advocate competition in structure with a 70-seated tramcar ; my object is to emphasize the advantage of having a range between o and 36 in preference to o and 12. Where the traffic demands it, as where a dense traffic has to be taken continuously, a range from o to 70 unquestionably is superior to o to 36; but this question of capacity threatens to become a fetish. Observations of a large succession of tramcars taken in Liverpool, on typical routes, during the hours of greatest pressure, disclosed an unexpectedly low proportion of full cars. There are, of course, many cities where the motor omnibus will fail to compete with electric traction in operating costs, so long as no questions of street obstruction and other inconveniences are taken into account. If the adoption or rejection of the motor omnibus is to be governed solely by the cost per car-mile, available stat'stics tend to show that it is necessary for the traffic of the d'strict to support a 12-minute service, on the average, in each direction, for electric tramcars to equal motor omnibuses. This is the critical figure, and to exemplify its bearing on the problem, let us assume that the capital account for a particular projected scheme of electric traction is only Z.20,000 per mite of route, and that the promoters aim at securing 1 o per cent. per annum on this sum as the difference between revenue and expenditure, or a margin of, say, Z2 145. rod. a day per mile of route. 'The incidence of this necessary balance, expressed as a charge per car-mile, would be, for a 15-hour day :—
Of course, Zio,000 a mile is very often exceeded, which renders the amount to be earned correspondingly higher, in proportion. Thus, as will be seen from the table, Liverpool's margin of 3.41d. per car-mile was required to yield 9.9 per cent, on the capital involved; whilst Bradford's margin of 3.14d. only shows 7.3 per cent.
I will leave this matter without labouring it further, but believe it to be the key CO satisfactory and appropriate uses of the motor omnibus for public passenger conveyance, and, thereby, for the advancement of the public health.