LEARNING FROM LONDON.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 13907, 7 November 1919, Page 7

LEARNING FROM LONDON.

(By .1. AV. T. .Mason.') Omnibuses for New York. The- good, old-l'a*hiomd. mud-splashing, rumbling London kind. The kind that can go as fast as the traffic laws allow, and that do not throw miles of street into confusion when ;i little breakdown occurs. This is the only way. New Yorkers am saying, tliey can restore the continuity of travel from New York's traffic confusion.

Londoners, with the long waits fit the Hank unci the slow crawls along the Strand when travel is lioavy, are yet able to leave New York tar behind in the mailer of quirk surface locomotion. Nov York, or thai part of it called Manhattan Island, which is the heart of the whole, is a dozen miles long, and varies in width from half a mile to

a little over a mile. People: live in the north end and work in the south end of this elongated islet. There are. consequently, only two main arteries of traffic—north and south- and not half a dozen streets available for service that run the full ivnv.

When New York was a comparatively small municipality, and in particular before the days of motor-cars, New Yorkers boasted of the. rapidity with which they could get about their city. Hut during the past ten years New York hjis grown enormously, and almost every second New Yorker has bought himself a car. The result has been a gradual overcrowding of the streets until conditions arc now positively interfering with trade and commerce.

AYithin the past few months the city went io great expense to change the grading of Park Avenue, so that it oould form a' continuous thoroughfare about the Grand Central railway station. A new north and south thoroughfare was thus created, but it has made* no noticeable difference' in the congestion of the other avenues. So, in despair. New Yorkers are taking up the idea of omnibus lines. It is a movement of despair, not because there is anything against the omnibuses, but because the scheme calls for removing all tlic tramway tracks, and driving the trams out of Manhattan Island. This would be a very expensive undertaking, but if seems lo be the only solution. The tramways are outrageous interrupters of traffic. They are never dependable, and a slight mishap has frequently held up all cars on Broadway for from ten to twenty minutes. New York has recently changed its style of trainear to accommodate 2-} per cent, more people inside, hut experiments with the London double-decked type has not proved successful. Fifth Avenue has an omnibus line which is very successful, and which operates according to scheduled time. It is now proposed to extend this system all over the citv, and let the trainways die a natural death. The new omnibuses will be the property of the. municipalitv. if present plans are followed. This proposal has created indignation among the tramway stockholder.--. These latter, however, ha.ve recently been demanding a 50 per cent, increase in fares to pay dividends, and the city officials are turning a. deaf ear to their plea that they bo considered when the omnibuses are put into service.