MORE HASTE LESS SPEED

Evening Star, Issue 23130, 2 December 1938, Page 1

MORE HASTE LESS SPEED

WHAT A RACE IN LONDON PROVED A race that will make motoring history (so it was claimed) was organised in London recently by the ‘ Sunday Express.’ It was not a fast race. In fact, a condition imposed on one of the competitors was that he did not do more than 15 miles an hour. Yet it was a race that will decide more than a whole collection of the races in which drivers rush round concrete courses at over two miles a minute. The race was held to determine a peculiar question which almost everyone who has driven or ridden through die streets of a great city must at some time have asked himself, and yet which no one has ever tried to answer scientifically. It is this: If you are in a car in a crowded street, does it pay you to go as fast as possible, to dodge in and out, to overtake, and to accelerate wildly? Does it get you there quicker, though it may fray your nerves? Or do you get there just as quickly, as well as more safely and more peacefully, if you just stay quietly in your own place in the stream of traffic, move when it moves, overtake no one, and go placidly with the stream? Or, in short, is hustle worth while? The problem was brought to the notice of the ‘ Sunday Express ’ by a famous author. Mr H. de Yore Staepoole, his nerves jagged and jumpy after a visit to Loudon and its traffic, wrote the following letter to the editor; —

“ I wish you would get up a race between two taxicabs across the city, one going 15 miles an hour and the other going all out. “ I believe owing to traffic blocks, they would arrive pretty much at the same time.” The editor decided to organise a race between two taxicabs to find out the truth about it.

The course chosen was through the thickest traffic in the City of London, between Liverpool Street Station and the ‘ Sunday Express ’ office in Fleet Street.

He decided to kill two birds with one stone.

The number of people who wonder whether it is worth hurrying in London is equalled only by the number of people who wonder whether, after all, it would not be quicker to go on foot. Therefore it was decided that, in addition to the two taxicabs, there should be a runner. One of the taxicabs was to be allowed to hustle, to perform any road acrobatics he liked, provided he kept the law and the 30 m.p.h. limit. Ho represented the daring driver. The other taxicab was to represent the steady and cautious driver. Ho was not tqjje allowed to go faster than 15 miles an hour.

The runner was to be allowed to run as fast as he liked—and, of course, he did not have to observe traffic lights. Finally, to add variety and interest to the race, a cyclist was to be allowed to take part and match his prowess against the “ fast ” and the “ slow ” driver and the pedestrian. All four competitors started together. The “ fast ” taxi went off with a rush and vanished down some side streets, where ho imagined be could make fast speeds and dodge the traffic lights. The “ slow ” taxi trundled staidly off on the ordinary route, passing nothing, stopping whenever the man in front stopped, accelerating as gently as an “ L” driver. The runner set off at a smart and businesslike trot.

The cyclist dropped his head to the bars and pedalled off furiously. The competitors caught sigh of each other at intervals as they dashed or ambled across the city—and a few minutes later they arrived, one after another, in Fleet Street.

In what order? Surprising as it seems, the result was as follows: First; Cyclist; time, Cmin 35sec. Second: Runner: time, 7min 40seo. Third: “Slow” car; time, flmin 34sec. Last: “Fast” car; time, lOmin Gsoc. And what is the moral of the race?

AII the competitors agreed it. was: Hurry doesn’t pay. It is not only safer, but quicker, to keep up a moderate speed. All the hustling and rushing only makes the journey take lon gcr.