TRAINING BUS DRIVERS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19235, 26 January 1926, Page 6

TRAINING BUS DRIVERS.

LONDON TRAFFIC DANGERS. A THOROUGH' PREPARATION. The London " General " omnibus driver is unrivalled. -The skilful and dexterous handling of his " hackney carriage" through the maze of London traffic is the admiration of all.' One has to go to Chiswick to discover the secret of this, says a London paper. Here we see the London driver in all stages of manufacture, from the raw material to the finished acticle.

Chiswick is the homo of a training school, and the curriculum there embraces a wide range of instruction. Its basic principle is "Safety First"—and all the time. The potential driver of a London General omnibus may have had driving experience, or ho may not, but he cannot, escape the searching and progressive examination and technical instruction which the " school " has planned for all who aspire to control destinies of a motor omnibus, and th'a hundreds of passengers which it carries m the course <of its daily journeys.

The examination—physical and mental • —is not in any sense superficial. The initial interrogatory examination by one of the officials having been reported as satisfactory, the applicant has to submit to a medical overhaul. If he ; comes r#it of this unscathed he joins a class ior elementary arithmetic. This is necessary for conductors.

The next step is to the lecture room, where by means of blackboard drawings he is taken mentally through some of the most crowded and bewildering traffic, and he is invited to suggest a way out. A course in rudimentary mechanics follows, and then comes the furbishing process—lessons in courtesy. Emerging successfully from the theoretical part, the driver now proceeds to the practical tests. Encircling the repair works is the " Brooklands " motor omnibus track for testing both men and machines. Abutting the instruction ground is a concrete-paved square with a slope of about one in thirty. This is the skidding rink. The surface is dressed with a thick deposit of oil and grease. This is sprayed with water. Grease and water combined make a delightfully treacherous surface, over which the motor omnibus literally slides immediately the brakes arc applied. The evolutions are. amusing. The new driver has to take his vehicle, in which sandbags are placed for ballast, over this " slippery slope," and drive it between two posts. When the slope is reached the driver applies his brakes, and temporarily he seems to have lost control, for the vehicle swings round in a most menacing wav.

With a perfect control of the brakes and the steering wheel, however, tho omnibus is arrested and taken through the " enclosure."

There are other tests in driving in tho quieter streets adjoining the works, arsr' the " Scotland Yard test " is the final.