NEW TRAFFIC BILL

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 134, 3 December 1929, Page 11

NEW TRAFFIC BILL

BRITISH ROAD REFORM

CO-ORDINATING TRANSPORT

DEASTIC PROPOSALS

British Official Wireless.

RUGBY, Ist December.

! Drastic proposals affecting all classes cf traffic on the highwaj-s of Britain are contained in the text issued of the Road Traffic Bill. The minimum age for a motor-cycle driver's licence is to be raised from 14 to 16. A reduction of duty hours for drivers of heavy motor vehicles is provided for. Area commissioners are to license public service- vehicles and regulate routes and services. The terms of the proposed measure are generally approved by the Automobile Association and the Eoyal Automobile Club, the two great organisations of motorists.

The Minister of Transport, Mr. Herbert Morrison, referring to the new Bill, said that its effect would free motorists from hopelessly out-of-date restrictions and should call to order inconsiderate and incompetent drivers, and he hoped that by it pedestrians would be able to co-operate with other users of the highway to the common advantage. The Bill provides machinery whereby various public service vehicles would work on something of a co-ordin-ated basis.

The report on the administration of tho Eoad Fund for the twelve months ended 31st Mareli states that the total receipts of the fund from all sources were £21,298,000, as compared with £20,348,000 in the previous year. The approximate number of vehicles for which licences were granted during 1928 exceeded 2,000,000. The figures represent one motor vehicle for every 22 poisons in Great Britain. One person in every 18 in Britain holds a driving licence. The report shows that the total length of the public highways in Great Britain is 179,095 miles, which is .more by 2000 miles than ten years ago.