Evening journal., 1897-09-24
CONTEMPORARY OPINION
STREET cRUsHEs IN LONDON

STREET CRUSHES IN LONDON.
That is what crowds the streets
buses, hansoms and four-wheelers; in
other words, the utter lack of proper
means of transit .Omnibuses, of course,
are used only because nothing offers
that Is better and equally cheap; and
the 10000 hansoms and four wheelers
that are constantly flying about are
necessary, because there is no other
way of quick and comfortable local
travel. III is not trucks that crowd the
London streets, not express wagons
(for there are practically none), not
the brewers big wagons Of beer, GER
tainly not ice wagons, which are en-
tirely unknown; it is nothing more
nor less than the omnibuses and han
SONS. Take them away, and there is
no more overcrowding in the streets,
not in the busiest streets than there
is in a lively country town.
Tampering with figures is likely TO
make dry work but rains are too fire.
quent here for anything to be entirely
dry. There are 2,130 omnibuses plying
in the streets of this town. and, with
it's two horses, each bus occupies at
least twenty feet of space. SO the room
taken up by buses in the street Is 2,130
multiplied by 20, which equals AZ 500
feet or a little more than s miles. Then
there are, in round numbers, 10000
hansoms and four-wheelers, occupying
fully ~ linear feet each. Sixteen thou
sand multiplied by 12 gives a total of
10000 feet, or more than SO miles.
Eight miles OF omnibuses and 36 miles
of cabs make total of A miles. Be
Sides these, there are So lines of street
cars, on which !, 100 cars are constant
ly running, occupying, let us say, %
feet each, or 1880 feet in all, or some
thing over miles. That brings the
occupied space up to 40 miles; and the
railway omnibuses, plying between sta
tion and station, are plenty enough
to bring the grand total up to an even
80 miles-50 miles of public convey
ances constantly moving in the streets,
the buses and tram cars at an aver
age speed of 5h miles an hour
And what is that, spread over our
thousands of miles of streets?' more
than one Londoner has asked me.
Nothing, surely, If it was really spread
over them; but it is not. How many
hansoms are plying in Bermondsey, or
Hackney, or the East End, or in any Of
the poorer quarters? Practically none
And if buses run to those sections they
al come into the heart of the city TO
take up space. IL is in the crowded
parts OF the town that these vehicles
principally run excepting the tram
cars), and those parts are crowded be-
cause these vehicles are there.
The fact is that a dozen lines OF
quick-moving street cars would relieve
the London streets of all their over
crowding. 1t is not that there is so
much business in the streets, but
that the Omnibuses are such
numbering old things and move so
slowly. l do not even mention elevated
railways, because It would not do to
give the British too great a shock They
rovile their own underground roads,
and avoid them whenever they can; bu,
Britain is net ripe enough yet to grasp
the elevated idea. 1--WE cannot do il
here as you do in New York, they tell
me; "our streets are too narrow and
too crowded for any form of fast-mov-
ing lrains; and as to a company buying
through tho blocks-impossible! 1t
would take the wealth of the lncas!'
/ wonder how many of the Incas had
half the wealth that is taken every
year by these antiQuated, snailish con-
veyances in the streets of London?-
New York Times.