CABS AND OMNIBUSES.
91HERE are one or two sentences which occur at the 1_ • beginning of the Report of Mr. Norman's Committee on London Cabs and Omnibuses which it is difficult to read without exasperation. They do not refer, of course, to the work done by the Committee which has just issued its Report, but to the condition of affairs in regard to wheeled passenger traffic which had been reached in London at the beginning of the present year, when the motor-omnibus had first really begun to attract attention, and which made the issuing of some such Report as this a necessity. The Committee begin by observing that in regard to horsed vehicles the questions referred to them had mostly "either (1) been previously reported upon by Committees or officials, whose recommendations have hitherto remained without effect ; or (2) are regarded as so difficult that the Department of State concerned is careful to avoid the expression of any opinion upon their solution." In 1895, for instance, a previous Committee recommended the abolition of the privileged system of cabs in railway stations ; the recommendation was not adopted. The same question was submitted to the Commissioners who make their Report to-day ; and the representative of the Home Office examined by them remarks that "we have never been able to arrive at any solution on the point." Again, in December, 1905, the Home Secretary issued a new Order dealing with many of the matters referred to Mr. Norman's Committee. However, there were strenuous objections from the cab-drivers, and on the main questions thus disputed the Committee was officially informed that "we at the Home Office have no opinions to offer." In a word, the authorities had given up the riddle. Need they have done so ? The finding of an answer to the riddle is now an even more pressing matter. Mr. Norman's Committee have the courage to suggest that their recommendations should be put to public experiment for a fixed period, even if the result must necessarily be uncertain. If their recommendations are wrong, at least, they ask, let us discover why and where they are wrong by practical experiment, rather than fold our hands, on the chance of some day obtaining an ideal solution.
The Committee divide up their Report into three main sections. The first deals chiefly with cabs, the second chiefly with motor-omnibuses, and the third with the results which may be expected to follow on the use of the taximeter both on horse-drawn and motor cabs. If we take the second part of the Report first, it is because in certain respects it is the simplest, in that it raises new points which have not been discussed by previous Com- mittees, but in regard to which a private enterprise has supplied a good deal of valuable experience. Also it is the coming of the motor-omnibus which has once for all made it imperative that some solution of the traffic riddle should be found. Let us say at the outset, then, that the findings of the Committee in regard to the motor-omnibus are characterised by the same moderation and good sense which run through the rest of the Report, and which make us the more hopeful that public temper will approve of a patient trial being given to the Committee's recom- mendations. The Committee note with approval the fact that the initial experiments of the motor-omnibus industry have been allowed a large elasticity by the police. If that elasticity had been denied, it is not only probable, but almost certain, that the natural growth of an important industry would have been checked hopelessly, and that ten years hence we might still be confronting to-day's difficulties. It is perhaps hardly realised how prodigious the activity of that industry now is. According to the figures which the Committee supply, during the year ending June 9th last 521 motor-omnibuses were licensed by the police. "The average daily mileage of each vehicle is from 100 to 120 miles ; with 75 per cent. of them running, therefore, the average total daily mileage is about 47,000 miles. That is, in spite of the infancy of this traffic, and the present high percentage of disabled vehicles, the total mileage per annum of motor omnibuses in the Metropolis is already nearly 17,000,000 miles." However, the Committee consider that the experimental stage is over. Severer standards must be imposed. They recommend, therefore, briefly, (1) that there should be a rigorous in- spection of inotor-omnibuses, both unexpected and periodical; (2) that motor-omnibuses licensed by the Metropolitan Police should be allowed to ply within the Metropolitan Police area only, and vehicles plying outside that area must be subjected to further tests (this is, of course, a corollary of the Handcross accident) ; (3) that the police should have power to issue temporary licenses to cars of improved design in order to encourage experiment. As regards noise and vibration, they are of opinion that many motor-omnibuses now running "commit an intolerable in- fringement of the amenities which are the right of every citizen." The injury caused by vibration, they point out, is occasionally due to other forms of traffic besides motors. But as regards noise, there cannot be too strong con- demnation of the roar and rattle due to bad machinery, insufficient overhauling, persistent overwork, and bad driving. Lastly, offensiveness of smell can be, and ought to be, dealt with by the police. There is no reason why a motor-omnibus should poison the air any more than a horse-omnibus.
It is because the motor-omnibus has been subjected to uch a storm of criticism, and because, in spite of its defects, it has proved so extraordinarily interesting and popular with the great majority of the public, that the recommendations made by Mr. Norman's Committee will be recognised as moderate and sensible, and will, we hope, be acted upon at once. If the hansom-cab had at auy time of its history been subjected to the violent criticism which has assailed the motor, the questions raised with regard to its use in the Report of Mr. Norman's Committee would have been settled long ago. As it is, neither the public nor the drivers—and especially the drivers—have considered the possible development of the cab industry with sufficiently close attention. The drivers have taken it for granted that alterations as regards fares and distances will always be to their disadvantage. Consequently, until the advent of the motor-omnibus they have not realised how necessary it is for them to compete with the many systems of cheap transit which, almost unseen, have been growing up around the. Take, for instance, the question of privileged cabs at railway stations. There have been innumerable squabbles between the drivers and the railway companies as to the terms on which cabs should be admitted to the .railway stations. The companies have contracted with cab-owners for a continual supply of vehicles, but have insisted on payment for the privilege of using the station. They have thus, they contend, insured that there should be a sufficient supply of good cabs at all times and in all weathers. The cabmen, on the other hand, urge that if free access were allowed to the station, the trains would always be met by sufficient cabs ; that where there are fares, there also will be drivers to take them. Meanwhile, tubes and tramways increase, and so also do the facilities for conveying luggage from one station to another unaccompanied by its owner. It sounds almost ridiculous to have to remind the disputants over this question of privileged cabs that they are quarrelling over a regula- tion made for the provision of cabs at railway terminuses which was actually framed in 1839. That was before the telephone. It ought not to be forgotten among the anti- quated arguments which are still furbished up for use in disputes between railway companies and cab-drivers that in the twentieth century a single telephone message ought to be able to supply any reasonable number of cabs at any given centre in London at two or three minutes' notice. Meanwhile, the system in vogue at Waterloo might well be adopted by other railway companies. Each cab pays a penny for the privilege of entering the station, and in return the drivers are provided with a well-lighted room, warmed in winter. Consequently there are always plenty of cabs in the station.
We come, finally, to the taximeter. The Committee, recognising the weight of the evidence, not only of the Commissioner of Police, but of the great cab proprietors, recommend "the legalisation of a tariff commencing with a sixpenny fare for a short distance, combined with the use of the taximeter working on the hour-mile system." This is the German system, which is now also being gradually established in Paris; • it may be roughly described as measuring the fare by time or distance, whichever first earns its pennyworth. The cabmen confronted with the gloomy prophecies of those who urge that the future is only to the omnibus and the tramway should take some comfort from the reading of the statistics of the revival of cab-taking in Berlin, Hamburg, and Paris. Now that the taximeter is established, "the general public are delighted with the arrangement and notwithstanding that the trams have been electrified for three years and the fares are extremely cheap, cab-riding has considerably increased." "Quite a new life" has been thrown "into the use of cabs in Hamburg." But the evidence from every Continental city is the same : the taximeter, with its small initial fare and slight gradations, has proved immensely popular. Why should it not be popular in London ? No doubt the cabman might offer the explana- tion that a certain amount of pleasant risk and romance is taken away if a relentless instrument legalises and makes certain the amount owed him by his fare. That is possible, but after all he should reflect that such a plea interests cab-drivers more than cab-users, and he might perhaps take comfort from the reflection that the law may regularise the amount legally due from his fare, but it will not necessarily regularise the amount which a good- humoured fare may be willing to pay. But the arguments for the use of the taximeter are in reality in essentials the same as those which apply to the regularisation of the motor and omnibus traffic. Certain difficulties have been pronounced insuperable in the past. To overcome them, certain experiments are suggested now. Let the experiments be tried, and if they prove to be mistakes, at least they will show what mistakes may be avoided in the future.
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