STOPPAGE OF ALL TRANSIT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3773, 6 July 1926, Page 33

STOPPAGE OF ALL TRANSIT.

HOW THE WORKERS TRAVEL. PRIVATE MOTOR VEHICLES. * STOP ME FOR A LIFT.” (Fhom Oub Own Corbespondent.) LONDON, May 8. It is not a new thing for suburban Londoners to get to work on t' ir own feet. For on two previous occasions since the war trains have ceased to run, and the millions who make their way each day to the City or the West End by trains, buses, tubes, or trams have been left to reach their work in the best way they can. Last Tuesday morning, which was fortunately fine, the teeming workers of suburban London, and the many thousands in outlying towns, stepped out of their front doors with the problem of covering distances up to 20 miles before.they could begin their day’s work. That the large majority of people settled this problem somehow is seen by the fact that to the ordinary eye the business of London has been going on much as usual. Certainly, the thunder of the omnibuses has been stilled for four days, but every shop is open, though it is manifest that very little business is being done in any of them. Yet there is a general strike in progress. It is only when one passes through what are called the “working class” suburbs that one sees people who apparently have no object in life, and that only in working hours. When the inward or outward flow of the workers begins there is no room for idlers on footpaths or on the streets. That concentration on the centre of the metropolis in the day time and the desertion of the centre at night is a wonderful thing, and it is only at such times as the present, when the concentration and dispersal must be done above ground and along the roadways, that one lealises what it means. Yet, thanks to the road sense £>[ the motor drivers and the wonderful control that the police exercise over the traffic, there is no confusion. There was naturally considerable delay at important crossings ou the first day, and the approaches to some of the Thames bridges were congested, but all that has improved. Progress, though slow, is none the less progress, and as the days pass one realises that there is less traffic on the streets because many offices are closing down. On Tuesday morning there were motorists who took two hours to get from Brixton to Trafalgar square, a distance of three or four miles. On the second day they did it in a little over an hour. On the third day they took little more than half an hour. Certainly, the congestion was relieved by a few trains, but for the most part it meant that every drver knew his job, and traffic controllers had become expert. At ether Thames bridges than Waterloo and Westminster the congestion was less apparent on the first day, and now the journey from Herne Hill to St. Paul’s Cathedral, a distance of five miles, can be done by motor in 20 minutes. It is a triumph for the motor-driven vehicle Three miles south of the Thames and about the same distance north of the Thames, every arterial street contains a solid mass of motor vehicles over more than half of its breadth. Yet they are all moving most of the time at anything from five miles an hour to fifteen, only a few yards separating the backs and fronts of cars. There appear to be no breakdowns. HUMANITY ON WHEELS. Motor vehicles, however, are only a section of the traffic. The side walks are a mass of moving humanity. An endless chain of push cycles cling closely to the side of the road, and motor cycles venture a little futher out. So this mass of humanity on wheels and on their own feet have ponred into (he business centre from north from south, from east and west, each morning, and out again at night. Probably the arterial streets are limited to a few hundred, but each of those streets presents the same picture morning and night. It Is as if the whole of the population of a New Zealand town assembled along a main city street to witness a procession and then all determined to walk in one direction. It is a similar scene to that on one of the arterial streets of London. When one multiplies that by a few hundred there is a picture of London going to work during these days of strike. COPING WITH THE EMERGENCY. It Is difficult to imagine, however, how everyone travels the great distances that are necessary even from the outer suburbs, let alone from the outlying residential towns. Possibly some have given up coming to work. In other cases city offices have hired stretchers so that some members of their staff may sleep, on the business premises, and the Government has appealed to London residents to give beds to their staff who are working early and late and unable to get home. Others again have leased char-a-bancs for the period of the strike and take parties of their employees to diverse points each night, and collect them in the morning: Thousands of bicycles that at ordinary times are used only at week-ends have appeared. Bicycle manufacturers and merchants cannot compete with the demand for bicycles. Transport by bicycle is dangerous, but there seems an unwritten law that a few feet from each sidewalk should be reserved for them, and there appear to be very few accidents. Then there is a great host of walkers. Usually, Londoners are not great walkers; firstly, because they have to live so many miles distant from their daily toil, and, when an emergency arisca they set bravely out to tramp forward, but the strain la often too exhausting, and they are not fresh for work. Walking In London Is always tiring, because of the crowds on the pavement and the dodging to try to get quickly along, and because, too, the hard pavements are not an aid to pedestrians. Walking for pleasure is reserved for weekends in parks and In country. Fortunately, however, all this compulsory fresh sir and physical effort are conducive to good temper. Employers expect their staffs when they see them, and though employees do their best they hare not the mental worry of penalties for lateness. Thera Is s great freemasonry among the

victims of the strike, and a tendency to help one another. HOW THE CARS BECAME AVAILABLE. On the first day of the strike the streets were a great moving mass of throbbing motor vehicles, the small private cars with normal two-seat capacity managing to squeeze in four or five; every motor cycle-side-car carried three people, and often looked dangerously overloaded with four. But the big sumptuous car did not at the outset appear to grasp the opportunity of its great usefulness in picking up people—people who are season-ticket holders by trains and tubes, but who, deprived of their rights, were independently walking on as best they could. By the evening the wireless appeal came to the aid of the public, for the official request came through asking all private owners who had available seats to place themselves at the disposal of pedestrians if the direction happened to be the same. So, ever since, the big car owner has made it his personal business to travel slowly till he lias his capacity of ever-grateful passengers who are brought all the way to work, or at any rate, are helped considerably. Some cars carried a pencilled label: “If you want a lift, stop me,” but that did not altogether meet the needs in view of the multifarious possible directions to be traversed, so now the car-owners show the placard “To Putney,” “Can I help you to Croydon?” “This car goes to Watford,” “Any for Enfield?” “To Golder’s Green and Hendon.” The pedestrian is thus helped with promptitude, and the exact information so tersely given is an aid to the traffic expendition. In the Mall and Constitution Hill the car owner moves slowly along the footpath-edge till his capacity is complete. EFFECTIVE APPEAL. While things were being thus organised it was not unusual to see a neatly-dressed city-bound girl bearing a large cardboard label “Please give me a lift to Whitehall,” “Will someone please take me to the Bank.” “My destination is Fleet street; a lift will be appreciated.” And so on. Now, however, there is no need for this, as owners of all cars—large and smallare generosity itself, and many meml>ers of the public are enjoying for the first time the experience of a comfortable journey in a luxury limousine! THE “PIRATES.” There were many suburban residents, with the small car ordinarily reserved for weekend country jaunts, who brought their neighbours up to London on the first day of the stoppage, and they have continued to do so. So the city thoroughfares during the day have become great parking centres, and, in the absence of taxi-cabs —drivers of 5000 of which have been called out—and the withdrawal of all the London General Omnibus Company’s omnibuses, there is room in the roadways for cars to remain when garages are already filled to capacity. The few buses that have been run have been what are commonly called “pirates,” because they are privately owned, but. as their owners and drivers are generally exservice men who are trying to make a living, many of the public have liked to patronise them At present they are a godsend, and they carry passengers standing tightly packed on the. roof, one on every stair, three seated beside the driver, while those who cannot stand on .the footboard hang on behind. Yesterday a few of the “Generals” were on the roads, manned by volunteers, and beside each driver sat a constable. Eight hundred volunteers—drivers and conductors—have now been passed for duty at the L.G.O.C. depot at Chiswick, and it is hoped to have 2000 trained men available. Two hundred omribuses were working yesterday on the No. 1 circular route via Ealing, Hammersmith, and Chiswick. The company announced that 50 more omnibuses are put into service to start from Charing Cross to Golders Green, working the service until 8 p.m, WILLING VOLUNTARY WORKERS. One of the finest cogs in the Government machine for meeting the strike situation is the gigantic ear park in the Horae Guards. The official organ, Gazette, to-day says that the. to the appeal for private cars has been asrounding, but the organisation is so effective that all of them have l»cen absorbed smoothly and usefully. The Horse Guards easily transcends even the dreams of the foremost American parking place architects. It must be the best parking place in the world, and the Ministry of Transport was quick to realise its possibilities Day arid night there is a ceaseless ehb and flow of cars, there are sumptuous limousines from Mayfair, driven by the family chauffeur, who finds himself exploring the wilds of Peckham in search of Government employees, instead of making a round of calls in the West End, or taking the daughter of the house to a dance. There are lean powerful cars, built for speed, mostly driven by enthusiast ownerdrivers, which slink out of the Horse Guards in the small hours to unknown destinations, from Land’s End to John o’ Groats, on “His Majesty’s Service.” There are homely two-seaters, freak racing cars, “flivvers” old and young, and one or two specimens of the automobile in its infancy which, one feels, may well have been recently denuded of their exhibit labels in the Science Museum. Finally there is a good-sized covey of motor cyclist despatch riders. WOMEN DRIVERS. There is a large proportion of women among the drivers and they are no lesa keen on their voluntary work than the men. The keenness and cheerfulness of theso voluntary workers would be rather depressing to those who have- precipitated the strike if they realised it. It is entirely symbolical of the determination of the bulk of the nation to “go all out” in their support of the Government. Altogether the Ministry of Transport motor organisation is most impressive. It knows no hitches and no delays. It is nourished by a giant “dump” of petrol in front of the Admiralty which grows rather than diminishes in spite of the demands on it. Nowhere is there trace of confusion or excitement. It would be hard to estimate the value of the organisation to the life of the nation at the present time. Motor lorries and motor vans, of all descriptions, owned by business houses, Have been placed at the disposal of the Government for the transport of meat milk, vegetables, and all food supplies, and many of them travel long distance* to the ports and cold stores. Most of them, as they pass through London are in charge of police or of special constables. FOR CHARITY. One gentleman whose car has been very useful in taking people to and from work,

obtained a collecting box from the hospital Council in St. Peter’s Close, and collected 15a 2d, the equivalent, or thereabouts, of the car fares his passengers would have had to pay. He was on his way to get another box. Seeing that the strike is costing the hospitals several hundred pounds a week in the loss on the “Id in the £,” this is one good way of trying to make up the shortage. Another owner this morning carried ft collecting box for tho lifeboatmen. PETROL SUPPLIES. Sir Frederick Sykes is keeping his car in its garage and riding a “push-bike” to and from the House of Commons in order to save petrol, but London as a whole seems to have no doubt that the petrol supply will meet all demands. The volume of motor traffic every day now is beyond ail precedents, and to ensure its continuance the heavy tank-wagons of the petrol companies are running cea.seles3ly between riyerside stores and distributing centres. The elimination of buses stonoiner to pick up and set down every few hundred yards and of taxicabs crawling slowly about in search of fares has ereatly accelerated the tramo of central London, which now floxi? evenly and certainly two miles an hour faster than before the general strike. *