TYRES AND PASSENGER TRANSPORT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 231, 30 September 1942, Page 2

TYRES AND PASSENGER TRANSPORT

THE Auckland Transport Board, as licensing authority for the metropolitan area, has been urged, many times, by the Ministry of Transport to regulate the running of buses in such a manner that tvres will be conserved to the greatest possible extent. It has found that reductions in the time-table do not necessarily mean reduction in mileage, that when trips are spaced at longer intervals the usual result is that more buses must be put on to cope with the consolidated rush. There is thus no saving of rubber to counter-balance the 'inconvenience to passengers. A practical method of effecting real savings in tyres was suggested by the board to the Ministry—the rationing of travel'in order to compel a definite and known reduction in the number of miles run. Here was something which would definitely save tyres, and it might have been expected that the central authority would receive it with open arms. But no, a coldly formal reply was received that the time has hardly arrived for such a step, and that the advisory committee will get in touch with the board again "if and when" concrete proposals ' are formulated. No attempt to explore the possibilities of the only practical solution yet ofTered to double and treble running, no effort to discover what the saving would be, a purely negative attitude which is all of a piece with the recent history of tyre importation. When three years ago a world shortage was in sight and importers asked authority to get in extra supplies before the position drifted to the crisis which resulted in the freezing of stock they were told that "the situation would be dealt with when it arose." When it did arise the tyres could not be got, and we suffer accordingly. The laissez-faire attitude towards the latest suggestion runs true to form. "Wait till the rubber is completely worn off every bus wheel and then we will think it over." Either that or the position has been misrepresented and the urgency of saving is' not as great as the public has been led to believe.