THE TAXIMETER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13854, 18 March 1907, Page 5

THE TAXIMETER.

LONDON STREET TRAFFIC. ADVENT OF THE MOTOR GAB, Prsss issociilioa-By Telegraph -Copyright. LONDON. March 16. (Received March 17, at 4.28 ]i.ui.) Mv Gladstone (the Home Secretary) lias fixed (| lO taximeter cub fares for London at 3d it mile. Four hundred iiislnmicnU are now ready. ■ Sir Henry Xorman. in an article in the Lmiuon Daily Mail 0 f .lannary 25, slates :- liw appearance in tho London Gazette of the new Public Carriage Order marks another stage in tho social and industrial ' revolution due to the invention and development of the self-propelled vehicle. This sfago will directly affect tho traffic conditions o[ (he metropolis, and the pockets and convenience of millions of dwellers in London, and soon.hereafter the inhabitants of every great city in the kingdom. Ihe question was submitted last. May to a fcelcet Committco of the House of Commons, wliicli reported on July 31. Tho present new order, so far as it rocs, is substantially based upon tile report of'the Select Committee. In a word, as regards the public and horses ami-motor cabs, what does the now order do? In (he first l'laee. if, legalises the use of the taximeter, or mechanical fare-registering device, for horsed cabs, and [or motor-cabs makes it optional till Juno 20, and obligatory afterwards. Second, it prescribes two now sca.es of fa.ro* for public hackney carriages. The borscd hansom and "growler" may remain as (.hey are. except that the faro for journeys either within ami without, or wholly without, (he four-mile radius is reduced; to 6d- for Hie second mile or part of a. mile. This is lcng-delaved justice to all .residents without tho radius. Of tho old. soalo the. committee said: "It is astonishing that so anomalous u scale should have been tolerated so long." Further, if horsed calx, choose, thev max introduce the cheap, ; chorl; journcy-6d for half u mile. This docs not mean that each cabman may or may not charge 6:1 for the Brst halfmile, as ho chooses, but that the cab proprietor may, once for all, notify that his cabs accept fit! for a journey of half a mile. That is, there will soon be two classes of hoped cabs without taximeters--(hose which bcitr some lotificaiion that they will carry passengers half a. mile for 6d', and Ihoso which charge Is for two miles, as at present. Thiirtl, tho order creates it now dure of horsed cabs—those bearing taximeters. For these tho fare will be 6d for a mile, and 3d tor eacli subsequent half-mile. If tho journey bo wholly outside tho radius .the faro is Is a mile, and 3d for each subsequent quarter of a mile. Fourth, (ho order recognises motor-cabs, and rightly makes the taximeter compulsory for tliaso after June 30 next, and optional immediately. A motov-cab without a. taximeter is impossible. The public will not use 'motor-cabs if it has to bargain with the driver. The charge is to be 8d a mile .and for these the radius is abolished—another most wise decision—and 2d for each subsequent quarter of a mile. Tints yoti enter a motor-cab, (he driver lowers thc'liltle red tin flag on the taximeter showing that he is engaged, and tho instrument instantly marks Bd. That carries you a mile. Then the taximeter shows lOd for a mile and a quarter; for a milo and a half, Is: for a milo and three-quarters, Is 2d; and for two miles. Is 4d.

■' Writing in the Daily Mail of January 29, Sir Henry Norman says:—"Fifty motorcabs are plying for hire in London' to-dav— a number too small to affect'traffic- conditions in so great a city, while the necessity in the absence of the taximeter of bargaining for each drive defers all but a few people from using them. A fortnight hence the revolution is coming at a, bound. By that time £750.000 will have been subscribed for the industry. Orders for nearly 2000 motor-cabs for London alone have been placed with three makers. A hundred cabs are in Brixton to-day, and others aro arriving at the rate of 20 or 30 a week. "Within a. few- weeks 500 cabs, made by the famous firm of Renault, will be. in the street";. The Brixton garage- of tie General Motor-Cab Company, with which (he United Motor-Cab Company will be allied, is almost completed, am! will ho the/ finest, in the world, liaklin? 1000 cabs. The c-ah? themselves leave nothing to he desired, and an excellent, cla.-s of men aro coming forward as drivers, a number of them having already passed llio police examination."