MOTOR-BUSES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 146, 21 June 1924, Page 7

MOTOR-BUSES

USE ON POOR ROADS

AN EXPERT'S ADVICE,

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.)

(AUStR.ALIAK-.NEW ZEALAND CABLI! ASSOCIATION.)

(Received 21st June, 11 a.m.)

NEW YORK, 19th June. In view of the discussions on transit problems in various Australian cities, especially Adeliade and Melbourne, with reference to the practicability of using motor-buses, Mr. it; E. Felder, general manager of the Fifth Avenue Bus Company, and the leading American authority on this question, was interviewed. Mr. Felder said: "I understand that the Australian highways, especially in the suburbs, are inferior to those of the United States in finish and surfaces ; but this is easily counter-balanced by their width, which assures reduced running time. Tho successful operation of buses depends principally upon the use of a standardised type of vehicle, and any one of a dozen reputable types is likely to give good results on the Australian roads, provided they have a sufficiently long wheel base to distribute the shocks evenly. It is more important to employ a standardised type, even at the risk of its being imperfectly adapted to colonial roads, than to use a variety of buses of relatively higher quality, because the latter require Uio maintenance of a multiplicity of repair stocks, which eats ruinously into the profits. Mixed types, moreover, necessitate the instruction of drivers to operate the different buses, while the employment of a standard type permits a driver quickly to grow accustomed to the work, and eventually enables him often to make his own repairs en route, which increases active earning power of the vehicle."