THE CONTROL OF LONDON.
TRAFFIC.
A SOLUTION of the traffic problem in London is long overdue, but it now seems that we arc likely to get one in a hurry. The London tramway and omnibus strike is forcing it, and though we must regret the cause we shall not regret the result. In order td see how the details of the strike and the details of the traffic problem dovetail into one another, we must look at the Interim Report of the Court of Inquiry on the strike. It is very illuminating, and it contains implicit in it an explanation of all our present troubles.
The -Court had before them, of course, the deniand of the men for an increase of 8s. a week, and in their Interim Report they begin by saying that the merits of the men's claim were " not seriously questioned." That is a solid fact. There is general agreement, then, that the men deserve in the abstract what they have struck to get. In a perfect world they would get it without further dispute. But in their second sentence the Court go on to say that the tramway and omnibus undertakings are not earning enough to pay the increase demanded. That is another solid fact. If we put the two facts together and accept them both, we must say good-bye, for the time being, to the economic wage.
Now for our part we are individualists so long as we can possibly be so ; we believe that private enterprise, with the alertness and ingenuity engendered by it, has done wonders in giving London in the past very cheap means of transport—certainly far cheaper than could have been contrived by any official department, however efficient. In the hope of gains which were never realized private persons put down millions of money, for which they have received but a minute return. The real beneficiaries were the public. When, however, the traffic of London has reached such a volume as is now patent to the eye of everybody who uses the streets, the time has come, we must confess, to exercise an official control over private enterprise, not because it will give us cheaper services but because there will then be some hope of relieving by regulation the increasing and already almost hopeless congestion.
The third clause of the Interim Report shows how the congestion and the financial condition of the various undertakings act and react upon one another. It is precisely, says the Court in effect, because the com- petition between the various omnibus companies and between all those companies and the tramways has become so severe that all the undertakings are unable to pay increased wages out of their profits. Well, it may be said, the obvious remedy is to increase the fares ; the undertakings will then have more revenue and will be able to pay the increase out of it. The Court, however, inquired into that matter, and they came to the conclusion upon the most authoritative evidence that to increase fares would not increase the revenue. That is yet another of the solid facts with which the Court have cleared the ground for a solution.
Finally, the Court declared that there was a unanimous agreement among the witnesses and the members of the Court itself that the only hope of improvement lay in setting up a co-ordinating control of the passenger traffic of Greater London. The Court believed that a definite promise by the Government to press forward legislation to this end was the only practical basis for bringing the two sides in the strike nearer together. We cannot possibly dissent from that opinion. And yet it must be admitted that unless good will and common sense operate more conspicuously than they have yet done, the proposal helps us forward by yards instead of by miles. If there had been common sense, the Court of Inquiry would, of course, have been -- set up before there was a strike, not after it had begun, and the public would not now be victimized because Mr. Bcvin demands wageS which he readily admits the tramway and omnibus companies cannot pay. The County Council tramways could doubtless put more of the cost of upkeep on the rates and thus pay the men higher wages without raising the fares, but the omnibus companies (like the Combine which includes the Tubes and the Underground, and of- which the most powerful omnibus company is a part) have no such purse to draw upon. It is not to be , wondered at that the Combine, which must pay its way or put up the shutters, takes a more despondent view of things than is necessary for the London County Council. Hope must reach out into the future ; co-ordin- ation must be made to effect such economies that the economic wage can be restored. Indirectly there will be a financial benefit to the whole community through the acceleration of traffic.
The proposal foi unified control is by no means new, though the strike has given it freshness and urgency. We are convinced, as we have said, that control has become necessary. The congestion is far worse than it ever was in living memory. In a comparatively narrow street like the Strand individualism has become an obsolete and dangerous doctrine. Private enterprise should still be encouraged, but it should be regulated by controlling brains which would .grant new leases where the public needed to be served better and not on the already crowded scenes of the competitive battles of the past.
It is at least satisfactory that the Government have actually introduced a Bill which tries not only to satisfy the conditions laid down by the Court of Inquiry but to carry out the principles which Sir Henry Maybury expressed to the Royal Commission on London govern- ment in December, 1922. The present Bill was drafted in substance by Mr. Baldwin's Administration. The plan of making certain officials who are all authorities on London traffic members of the Committee by virtue of their office has, of course, been challenged by Liberals, who would prefer an elected Committee. It is impossible to see, however, how a Committee dependent upon electoral fluctuations could maintain any continuity of policy.
It may be that the Committee to be set up within the next few days cannot last very long, or at all events will be vested with only a tithe of the powers which it ultimately ought to have. At least we are quite clear in our own minds that in the end the Committee to control London traffic ought to have very full authority indeed. It must be in a position to override, in the interests of the whole of London, the amour propre or the local objections of any municipality. We should not be surprised if it were found that its functions were inseparable from the larger questions of town-planning and so on. We. hope that it would have an intelligence department which would continually study the best that is being thought and done in traffic problems all over the world. At present London (though its police are the best personal controllers in the world) has much to learn, for example, from New York. In New York such checkings of a stream of traffic to let another stream of traffic pass as arc seen in London at every junction of streets would not be tolerated. The Americans have planned by-pass ways for the different streams, which practically never cut across one another. The objection used to be raised that you cannot send a driver far out of his way, but in these days of motors the objection is not valid. It is better for a motor to go half a mile out of its way, so long as it can move fast, than to be held up in a block for four or five minutes.
The future controlling body of London traffic should control and not own. It might well reproduce some such financial arrangement as has been imposed on the gas companies, by which profits are restricted. That would greatly reduce the suspicion and the jealousy among employees, which are a considerable part of the motive for every strike.
Previous page
