Jan. 9.
There can be no question that the matier of Shanghai's trafic needs to be given very serious consideration, for the impression is growing that the streets of this oily are being used without due regard for all the various classes of traffic which pass. along them. A great deal of present trouble is to be attributed to the faults of previous generations, who failed to understand the potentialities of the place, and plan accordingly, and to the conditions which have prevailed in Shanghai since the outbreak of Sino-Japanese hostilities. But apart from that it is dificult to avoid the conclusion that all classes of traffic are neither suflciently controlled, nor ce-operate adequately enough to get the best value out of our thoroughfares. Thus what appears to be an unreasonable amount of parking of motorcar in narrow streets, such as Szechuen Road brings' about not only bad traffic congestion but contributes largely to the noise for which that road Is notorious.
It is when the Bund and Nanking Road are considered that it is possible to indicate the chief offenders who are without doubt the public utilities, "viz, the buses and the trams, Conditions along the Bund are bad enough. With bus turnabouts at Nanking and Peking Roads, with a tram loop near Avenue Edward VII and a trolley loop round Foochow Road, the Bund and Hankow Road, this thoroughfare has been heavily congested by the wharfage activities along the river bank. For some weeks now the tramway company have been relaying a section of their lines from Avenue Edward VII to well past Canton Road, depriving traffic of the centre of the thoroughfare and thereby adding greatly to the congestion. This is at a point where the traffic proceeds in all sorts of direction, with strings of trams sometimes six or seven at a time waiting to pass round the loop, with the normal traffic along the Bund, and. the lorries passing to and fro across the ordinary traffic lines. Yet it is here that for weeks past the surface of the road.has been disturbed and the work carried on at a pace which seems lamentably slow. In any big city sugh. work would have. be performed at night and. the road surface made available for use by day, and it. suggested that this should be the case here.
The junction of Nanking Road and the Bund during the rush hours has to be seen to be believed. The bus stop at the Palace Hotel is a definite hindrance to traffic, due mainly to the disregard by the bus drivers of what would be regarded as ordinary common sense. Buses pull up to take on passengers, not close to the Kerb, as is done in any well managed city, but' feet away from it. No passenger should have to step out into the road to mount a bus, but should be able tp do so direct from the pavement. Failure to pay regard to this simple point Teads to the buses occupying more of the trafic channel than should be the case, and undoubtedly contributes very largely to the congestion at that particular point. It is perfectly certain that, if London bus drivers handled their vehicles' in this respect in the same manner as do local -drivers, action would be taken and the men brought to a proper realization of their duty.
But the public utilities are not the only ones (o blame. There is a deplorable habit amongst motor-car drivers, who desire to pick up a friend, of stopping in the middle of the road to do so, and holding up every vehicle following. Obviously their duty is to draw in to the kerb but that is honoured more in the breach than the observance. It may be argued that the system of parking in some streets does not permit of this being done, but the answer to that is that people should be picked up' at spots where it is possible to do so without stopping the ordinary flow of traffic. In all of this there is no desire to criticize the police, who, it {s-fully realized; are carrying out their duties under a number of adverse conditions, and doing it very -well indeed. What is wanted is more ce-operation all round from the users of Shanghai's streets, and the display of a better traffic sense than is at present noticeable, though, perhaps, a little punishment meted out where necessary might have salutary effect.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.