The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-25 00:00:00

The New City Traffic Regulations.

The new by-laws made under the authority of
the recent Act of Parliament for regulating the
traffic of the City have now been in practical ope-
ration for a week, and the result has been a most
sensible relief from the overcrowding which has
been experienced for years past in all the leading
thoroughfares. Yesterday in Cheapside, looking
from the corner of Queen-street, which intersects it
about the centre, towards the Mansion-house on the
one hand, and in the direction of the Peel statue on
the other, great gaps could be seen in the lines of
carriages of all kinds going in opposite directions,
at four o'clock in the afternoon, when the street
used to be at times all but impassable, except to
people on foot. At the same hour, and indeed all
through the day, Cannon-street, the broad, hand-
some thoroughfare leading in a straight line from
St Paul's to London-bridge, and which was wont to
be comparatively deserted, is crowded with passen-
ger traffic. Again, in front of the Mansion-house,
where six main and two subsidiary thoroughfares
all converge, and where for eight hours in the day
there used to bo a constant scramble, the charge for
the better is manifest. There people on foot can
now cross from side to side with ordinary care, with-
out danger to life or limb, and the dirty, disreput-
able persons who for years past have infested that
part of the City on pretence of assisting aged and
infirm persons across the thoroughfare may now
betake themselves to some honest calling. They
have long been a nuisance to the neighbourhood,
and have times out of number been brought before
the Lord Mayor and punished for drunkenness and
disorderly conduct and assaults on the police. Their
habit was to worry ladies with offers to convey
them across, and sometimes to hoot those who de-
clined their services or to submit to their exac-
tions. All this relief from over-crowding in
the great leading thoroughfare from the Bank to
St. Paul's and especially in the narrow neck of the
Poultry, has been effected simply by the diversion
along Cannon.street of all the omnibusses and cabs
going to and along London-bridge from the south-
east corner of the Cathedral, and in making the
reverse journey, instead of by way of Cheapside.
In this way 42 omnibuses, among others, plying
between Brompton and London-bridge, and which
invariably went and returned by Cheapside, now
pass along Cannon-street Loth ways, and as these
make five complete journeys to and fro daily, the
result is equal to diverting 420 omnibusses from
Cheapside in the course of the day. The change is
also partly owing to the operation of the new re-
gulations, which limit the height and width of loads
of merchandise conveyed between 9 o'clock in the
morning and 6in the evening, and prohibit alto-
gether the conveyance of scaffolding, timber, and
the like, of certain specified dimensions, between
these hours. By a judicious arrangement which has
long been enforced on London-bridge the light and
heavy truffle move onward in separate tracks, by
which confusion and delay are avoided, but the
pouderous waggons and vans on which bonded
stores, builders' materials, engineering plant, and
merchandise of all kinds are borne at slow pace
have never been amenable until now to any regula-
tion in the public streets, and hence during the past
week they have been " conspicuous for their ab-
sence." The civic authorities, exercising what in
the first instance they conceived to be powers con-
ferred
on them by the Act in this respect, sought to
control the traffic in various other directions, with
the view to the public convenience, by an elaborate
code of regulations ; but these good intentions
have for the present all been frustrated by the
ambiguous use of the little unfortunate word
" such " in one of the governing clauses.
Sir George Grey, who as Home Secretary, has
a power of approval, consulted both the Attorney
and SoliciteraGeneral_on the matter, who confirmed
his view of it, which was opposed to that of the Re-
corder and Common-Sergeant, by whom the Cor-
poration was advised, and in the result the Home
Secretary eliminated from the code of by-laws sub-
mitted to him for approval all but three of the 16
or 18 of which it consisted. The Bill was drawn
by one of the principal legal functionaries of the
Corporation, and promoted by the Gourt of Com-
mon Council, so that the flaw originated with them.
It is said, however, that the acute mind of the Ats
torneyGeneral has discovered powers which the Act
vests in the Court of Aldermen for still furthe faci-
litating the traffic, in some respects of which they
themselves or their advisers may not have dreamt.
If so it will be some compensation for the whole-
sale rejection by the Home Secretary of the pro-
posed by-laws submitted to him for approval. The
city magistrates want all the power they may fairly
use for such a purpose, as will appear from a re-
turn made to the Commcn Council when they
were promoting the Traffic Regulation Bill of
last year. It was then shown that the total num-
ber of passengers who entered the City daily in the
early part of May, 1860, on an average, was 706,621,
of whom 535,535 were on foot, and 171,986 were in
cabs and omnibuses, and that the average number
of vehicles entering it daily was 57,765. The ma-
terials for this return were carefully collected by the
police at 48 different entrances to the City. Of pas-
sengers 81,927, and of vehicles 10,429, entered by
London-bridge; 38,935 and 4,108 respectively by
Blackfriars-bridge ; 83,548 and 3,461 respectively
by Bishopsgate; 55,122 and 4,978 by Aldgate ;
20,650 and 1,279 respectively by Chancery-lane;
38,084 and 3,451 by Finsbury-place; 77,704 and
9,060 respectively by Holborn-bars; 28,842 and
2,439 by Smithfield bars; and 50,674 and 2,155 re-
spectively by Temple-bar. At that time, however,
part of the pavement was up in Fleetastreet, which
had the effect of bringing less vehicles into the
city through Temple-bar, and more than usual
through Holborn-bars. It may be mentioned in-
cidentally, as showing the Effect of a toll, that only
2,340 passengers and 497 vehicles entered the city
by Southwark-bridge, in comparison with the
84,927 and 10,429 respectively entering by London,
and the 38,935 and 4,108 respectively by Black-
friars-bridges. A most vexatious delay, extending
over a whole year nearly, has arisen in the applica-
tion of this most necessary Act for regulating the
traffic. The Act was passed towards the end of the
Session of 1863, and the long interval which has
since elapsed has been spent—first, in framing re-
gulations, then in advertising them for a month
before being submitted to the Home Secretary, next
in settling the interpretation of a monosyllable, and
lastly in advertising them again for another month
after they had been returned by Sir George Grey
excised in the manner described.