TRAFFIC LESSON TO THE WORLD

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 72, Issue 92, 18 April 1929, Page 10

TRAFFIC LESSON TO THE WORLD

EFFICIENCY OF A MIDLAND TOWN TRAMWAYS TORN UP An example to the world in street traffic is being set by Wolverhampton, which has established itself as far as traffic is concerned as the fastest cityin. England, writes the special correspondent of the Daily Express. Deputations have come, or are coming during this year, from three British colonics and live European countries to watch the Wolverhampton streets and to marvel thereat. An official German film was recently taken of the 'Wolverhampton street traffic, and the way it is controlled, for display to municipalities throughout Germany, and a memorandum on “How Wolverhampton Has Solved the Modern Traffic Problem’’ has been circulated to a number of chief constables in England and Wales. There are two reasons for Wolverhampton’s success. The town has definite! v abolished its tramway system —the last two miles of tramway track is being torn up now—ami Tins adoptee’ a special mechanical traffic controller which -works electric lights at important road junctions. London Comparison “From the statistics I have gathered from London and the great provincial towns,” said Mr David Webster, the Wolverhampton chief constable, to me to-day, “we are at least twenty-five per cent, faster in our streets than any place which has tramways, although our main streets carry a great volume of heavy traffic. “With tramcars away and automatic traffic points we have brought down our street acidents by 60 per cent. | The difference in the streets is remarkable. Even at the busiest times the rate of flow of all mechanical vehicles through the centre of Wolverhampton never falls below fifteen miles an hour, and normally one could drive from end to end of the town at twenty miles an hour. “Each of our electric control installations cost at first. £lOO, and then £l2 a rear for electric current. For that £lOO capital outlay and £l2 a year maintenance a control -will do the work of a policeman costing altogether £5OO a year. The saving in the ratepayers’ money is so much that it is a wonder to me our system has not been adopted everywhere, particularly in London. Leeds did follow our example. It should be remembered, too. that an electric controller cannot, err. It is impartial, and all its signals, 'Stop,’ ‘Caution.’ ‘Go on.’ cannot bo misunderstood.” ‘ ‘Trolly-Buses.” Tramways have been replaced in the town ‘by really luxurious six-wheeled pneumatic-tyred, double-decked “trolley omnibuses,” taking their electric power from overhead cables, but drh ‘ii and steered like motor-cars. “Our average working speed,” said Mr Charles Owen Silvers, one of the officials, “is more than twenty per cent, higher than with the most modern type of electric tramcar. We save time, particularly in setting down and taking up, because the ‘trolley-omni-buses’ are able to pull in to the pavements. We do not delay other traffic bv our fixed track. Maintenance costs are indefinitely less than with a tramway system, for we have no track upkeep to meet. “We have nearly paid off our old tramway debt. It will be cleared away by March 19a 1, and last year we made a profit of £30,000. Taking away our tramway lines has had the effect of doubling the width of our roads. We have doubled our road capacity by a stroke, and saved money as well. There is little doubt that every tramway undertaking in towns of a size comparable to Wolverhampton or smaller will be dead within, the next few years.”