Some Problems of Road Traffic Licensing
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1934.tb02368.x |
| Published date | 01 January 1934 |
| Date | 01 January 1934 |
| Author | A. T. Robinson |
Some
Problems
of
Road
Traffic
Licensing
By
A.
T.
V.
ROBINSON.
C.B.E.
[Paper to
be
discussed
at
the
Winter
Coneference,
London,
Jaaaar~
19341
I.
Few aspects of history are more interesting than that of
transport from the
first
taming of the horse, the discovery
of
the
wheel,
the
development through the centuries
of
the
horse
vehicle,
the canal, the tramway and the railway, down to the revolution in
our
own
days caused
by
the invention
of
the internal combustion
engine.
2.
The population
of
Great Britain is some
45
million persons,
including infants
in
cradles and bed-ridden centenarians. On
average, every one
of
these
45
millions made last year over
260
separate journeys,
35
by
rail,
210
by
public road conveyances and,
at an extremely conservative estimate,
a
further
15
in
other road
vehicles.1
Fifty
years ago the total figure for London itself was below
50
a year.a
No
comparable
statistics
are available with regard
to
the
transport of goods.
3.
Of
the
210
road journeys just mentioned,
90
journeys (over
4,000,000,000
in all) were made by tram or trolley vehicle and
120
1
Total
population
of
Great Britain (not including Northern Ireland), 44,790,485
(Census
:
Preliminary Report, 1931)
;
total
number
of
passenger journeys (including
season ticket journeys)
on
all
railways (including tube railways)
in
Great
Britain,
year
ended 3rst December, 1932, 1,557,003.648 (Railway Returns, 1932. p.
20);
total
pas-
sengers
on
tramcars and
trolley
vehicles, year 1932-33. 4,065,977,985 (Tramways and
Light Railways Returns, 1932-33);
total
passenger journeys
on
public senrice vehicles
with
a
seating capacity for eight or more passengers.
year
ended 3I'st December, 1932,
5,344,418,329 (Second
Annual
Reports of the Traffic Commissioners, 1932-33)
:
mechani-
cally-propelled vehicles,
of
classes not enumerated above,
for
which licences were current
at any time during the quarter ended 30th September, 1932, 2,179,978 (Road Vehicles-
Great Britain.
No.
49A).
For
the present
purpose
it
is
assumed
that
one person made
one
journey
each
day
in each of the last-named catego
of
vehicles.
Royal
Commission
on
London
Traf€ic.
1906.
Vol.
3
plate
vi.
34
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