ON OUR FEET AGAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 28, 1 August 1942, Page 4

ON OUR FEET AGAIN

Purchases of tyres and tubes for pedal cycles'are to be brought under control by a rationing scheme announced today. There can be no objection to this, as when there is a shortage of supplies the only reasonable thing to do is to ensure that what is available is distributed equitably and in strict accordance with essential needs. In general the scheme set out by the Minister of Supply appears to cover these points. It is interesting, however, to consider the revolution in transport which the i war has forced upon us. First of all, the need to conserve petrol meant that owners of the larger types of cars, in order to obtain the maximum mileage, had to turn to the smaller or "baby" types. Then came even greater restrictions in the quantity of petrol available for civilian use, and even the smaller cars had to be abandoned as a means of transport to factory and office or of weekend jaunts into the country. There were three alternatives left—to walk, to endeavour to obtain a seat in tramcars which were becoming more and more crowded, or to turn, albeit with certain misgivings on the part of many of us, to the homely but very useful pedal bicycle. Now even the bicycle is to be denied us unless we come within the very narrow, and, no doubt, necessarily narrow, category of essential users. If we do not care to risk the discomfort of crowded tramcars, we must apparently be content to walk—and will probably be a great deal better in health because of it. After all, the sacrifices which restrictions on unessential forms of transport have involved are small indeed compared with the sacrifices which many others have been called upon to make and have cheerfully made. The scheme for rationing tyres and tubes for pedal bicycles should work out quite fairly, and the committees set up may be relied on to carry out their duties with a due regard for the claims of all. On one point, however, there may be some misgiving. The Minister has stressed the representative nature of the committees, but the question might be asked: Who represents the users? Labour unions are represented, but it can hardly be claimed that they are in a position to speak for all sections of the community, and certainly not for one of the .principal classes of bicycle Owners —schoolboys and schoolgirls. * •