TRAFFIC DISTRIBUTION

Detailed figures indicate that this intense traffic is not uniformly distributed over the whole rush period. There is an enormous accentuation, limited to perhaps fifteen minutes, as eight a.m., nine a.m., and ten a.m. approaches, followed by an immediate equally enormous drop. If a considerable number of undertakings could be induced to start operations at the half hours, the task of transit organisations would be facilitated. Large factories, employing shift workers, should therefore arrange the time of change so as not to coincide with the maximum traffic. Work in self-contained organisations like Government departments should start and terminate so as not to overlap the City traffic. Employees in wholesale houses in the City should not have to travel at the same time as those engaged in retail houses in the West-end. Any attempt to depress the “peak load” finds high technical support. The recent public appeal to avoid all unnecessary rush-hour travel is eminently a move in the right direction. Even with this relief the supply of local transportation facilities will still fall short of the demand. Any effective remedy must, to some extent, increase the capacity of the present systems. Increased output can be secured either by the use of additional plant or the more intensive use of that existing. Only the latter method is at present practicable. If the speed of transit could be increased, existing man power and rolling stock could furnish more accommodation than is now provided. On the Piccadilly Tube, without reduced service or seating, an increased speed of little over one mile per hour enabled a 7 per cent. reduction to be made in the number of trains to run 40,000 train miles weekly. Can this method be extended? Railways, tramways, and omnibuses are not mutually exclusive in any large urban area. They all have different functions to fulfil. The most efficient use of all can only be made by proper co-ordination. The metropolitan local transportation system has developed independently and incoherently. Railways, tramways, and omnibuses have all been worked as if each was exclusively fitted to undertake all the varied tasks of modern traffic. Tramways tried to compensate for loss of time on long journeys by charging cheaper fates. Railways catered for very short distance traffic, and by stopping at frequent intervals neutralised their chief advantage, the element of speed. The result was inevitable. Carrying capacity was reduced, and operating costs increased. Local railways and tramways yielded most in considerable financial returns. The omnibus was an exception. It skimmed, unrestrictedly, the cream of London traffic without discharging any statutory obligations. Even here the conditions were not likely to be permanent. The remedy for present difficulties is the scientific restoration of the instruments of traffic to their proper functions.