New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-02-01
Statistics Show That 1t Is
Relatively a Safe
Vehicle.
CAN AVOID ACCIDENT
IN VARIOUS WAYS
Half a Dozen Leading Cities in
This Country Are Consider
inc Franchise Requests.

,oplicstions for motor omnibus fran
o,ises ere now before the authorities m
.,l,sst half dozen OF the leading Amer
10, cities. a fact which indicates that
..,s modern public passenger vehicle is
about TO receive some OF the consideration
d., ,b.s country 10 which its romarka le
seyCopmeut abroad entities IT,
in .icv Of the agitation that has been
5evc,ooed with regard 20 street accidents.
.se.o F. ono consideration attending the
rse OF motor omnibuscs IN large cities
,het docs not seem 10 Dc generally under
stood This is the matter Of safety to
passengers and 10 pedestrians and other
users 81 tho streets.
Most of the statements With regard 20
the dangers incident 90 motor bus opera
lion have been misleading. in that they
have failed % take into consideration the
extent Of the operation of motor buses
and the service rendered by them SAYS
Harold p Weaver. a consulting engineer.
Who has been identified with rapid transit
,-,r-ovements .n New York and other
large cities.
"A motor 'bus Is obviously less danger
ous than a streetcaf. because an accident
that is imminent can be avoided IN only
one Of TWO WAYS or by a combination oil
them. namely. boy a change Of speed or
hv 2 change Of direction. 4 motor bus is
cspsble of changing both its speed and
direction while a streetcar is oapaole
only OF change Of speed.
statistics relating to the city Of New
York seem 10 show that relatively the
motor bus IS very safe vehicle. For
the fiscal year Of 1911. the most recent for
which Official figures are 20 he had all
OF the surface lines in the Borough OF
Manhattan combined killed 20 persons and
injured about II SO exclusive Of employees.
~ the persons killed. Z were passengers
and @ were people in the streets. or
those injured. more than 5000 were pas
sensers and 5000 were persons in the
streets.
During the same year the motor omni-
buses running on Fifth avenue. which
were operated distance equal to per
cent Of the entire mileage operated by all
the surface car companies, killed no per
SON and injured only q passengers and
II persons in the streets-32 in all, eN-
elusive Of employees.
Comparing the figures, We find that the
streetca- lines injured one pedestrian for
every II 900 miles operated and the motor
buses injured one pedestrian for every
10000 miles operated. Including pas
senrers. one person was injured on the
streetcar lines for every 1000 miles oper-
ated. against one person injured by motor
buses FOR every $4,000 miles operated.
one pedestrian was injured by the surface
rail lines for every 10000 fare psssen-
gers carried. as compared with one in
jured by the omnibuses for every 10000
passengers carried. one passenger was
injured on the surface lines for every as
600 carried. and only one for every $50
600 carried by the motor buses.
These figures show conclusively that
for the miles operated and for the num-
Der u persons carried the operation % the
motor buses was from four 10 eight and
a half times as safe as the operation Of
street rail lines
omnibuses are more generally used than
IN New York. hey are also found TO be
safer than streetcars. in London there
are considerably more than 5000 motor
omnibuses in service. In 1912 these car
RED 4s2.S58,s34 passengers. as compared
with 5le.652,552 carried by the trans, as
the streetcars are known over there.
The total number Of accidents 10 pas
sengers and pedestrians by the rail lines
during the year was 2,4S6 and for the
motor buses IL was 1.7S5. In this con-
nection Il is 20 be observed that traffic is
much more congested in London than In
any city In the United States, and that the
omnibuses are operated in the most con-
sested streets. while the rail lines are op-
Grated on the less used streets"
In further explanation Of the greater
safety Of the omnibuses IT should be point
Cd out that these vehicles. not being con-
fined 10 rails IN the centre OF the street,
receive and discharge their passengers at
the curb, where they are not endangered
by other traffic: also that they are short
er than streetcars and do not swing out
80 far beyond the centre line of direction
when turning corners. and that they are
able TO maintain a better average speed
than the streetcars. without such high
maximum between stops