THE REGULATION OF MOTOR-CARS.
THE regulation of motor-cars and the best methods of keeping their drivers under proper control and pre- venting them causing injury and annoyance to the general public have of late been attracting more than ordinary attention, owing to the public interest created by the motor race between Paris and Berlin. As to the danger of holding races on public roads, we feel sure that there can be but one opinion. It is clearly most undesirable that motor-cars should be allowed to compete in the matter of speed on the high- ways. If motor-car owners want to race, they must decide the claims of the rival cars on private racing- tracks and not on public thoroughfares. But, happily, this is not a question which affects England. No reasonable person has ever proposed to allow road-racing hero, and any attempt to do so would, of course, be put down in the strongest possible way. What has to be considered here is the best way of exercising control over motor-cars without destroying the motor industry and depriving the owners of motor-cars of their fair rights in regard to the use of the roads. Though the majority of motor-car drivers use all proper care in the management of their vehicles, it is no doubt true that in a certain number of cases a good deal of recklessness is displayed. Cars are driven fast where they ought to be driven slow, and occasionally insufficient care is taken to consult the convenience and safety of the general public. But this occasional misconduct on the part of reckless and ill-conditioned drivers of motor-cars has been enormously exaggerated by the pre- judice which opposes the use of motor-cars as of all new inventions. While the careless and reckless driving of horses passes without notice, dangerous driving on the part of a " motorist "—to use a barbarous expression—is at once made the subject of comment. Yet in truth there is often far greater danger from the vehicle drawn by horses than from the horseless vehicle. And for a very simple reason. It is far easier to stop a motor-car at a moment's notice than a horse. When a child runs suddenly across a road, a motor-car can be brought to a stand before any injury is done much more rapidly than a fast-trotting horse. You cannot apply an " instant " braketo a horses legs. The proof of this fact is to be found in the very small number of persons actually run over by motor-cars,—making allow- ance, of course, for the number of vehicles. Even in France, where the pace allowed to motor-cars is much greater than here, and where their number is enormously greater, the accidents due to motor-cars are, we believe, much fewer than those due to bicycles.
Still, as we have said, there is a certain amount of reckless driving, though not of a kind that need produce any panic in the public mind, and this reckless driving ought certainly to be put a stop to. But first it should be pointed out that in the case against motor-cars it is not fair to include the frightening of horses. That is an inconvenience which is rapidly passing away. Just as horses have become accustomed to bicycles and trains, so they are rapidly becoming accustomed to motor-cars, and in a very few years no ordinary horse will notice a motor-car. Of course, nervous and badly trained horses will always shy at them on occasion, just as they shy at pieces of paper and heaps of stones by the roadside and anything and everything which happens to annoy them, but that is a fact which cannot be urged against motor-cars. It will very soon only concern the owners of horses. Meantime, and till horses generally have become accustomed to motor-cars, it is perfectly easy to " introduce " a doubtful horse to the nearest car. In reckless driving rests the only substantial part of the ease against motor-cars. How are we to prevent people, and especially children, from being run over by motor- cars ? If we believed motor-cars constituted a great and special danger to children which did not exist in the case of other users of the road, we would gladly see motor-cars banished for ever from the roads. Any little child's life and safety is worth a wilderness of motor-cars. But, in reality, there is no question of choosing between the safety of children and other foot-passengers and the use of motor-cars. The motor- car does not constitute the terrible danger alleged in any case, and if properly driven is less dangerous to the foot- passenger than the horse. The question, then, comes down to this,—" How are you to regulate motor-car traffic in such a way as to ensure careful driving ? " That is the problem. It is easy enough, of course, to draw up elaborate rules and regulations, and to place motor-cars under all sorts of special liabilities and disabilities, but the difficulty is to get them properly and reasonably carried out. When there is a wave of panic in the public mind they will be enforced with absolute and inequitable rigidity. When the panic has subsided they will be neglected and set at naught. What is wanted, if possible; is to pro- duce a strong sense of responsibility in the drivers, and not to tie them up with paper regulations. What is wanted, in other words, is a man on the driver's seat who can control his machine perfectly, and is most anxious to avoid an accident, not a person whose only idea is that, accident or no accident, he can prove that he just kept within the regulations. It has been suggested that one of the best ways of enforcing the present regulations would be to force every motor-car to carry a number in a conspicuous place, by which it and its driver could be instantly identified. Personally we do not see any great objection to the plan, but undoubtedly the majority of persons connected with the motor industry believe that it would do a grave injury to their trade. They believe that Englishmen, being what they are, would refuse to use a car bearing a conspicuous number, and there certainly seems to be confirmation of this view in the fact that the counter-proposition, that all wheeled vehicles—including, of course, the victoria and the landau of the Duke and the millionaire—should be also obliged to bear the number, is regarded with horror. Undoubtedly it would be an immense mistake to destroy the motor industry, for we look to cheap motor traction of all kinds to help solve many of the social problems of the day by making it far easier than it has ever been before to live in the country and work in the town. But even apart from this objection, it seems very doubtful whether the obligation to display a conspicuous number would really provide the security required. We note that the Highways Committee of the London County Council have been considering the pro- posal and reported to the Council against it. This action led to a short debate in the County Council, some members desiring to refer the report back to the Highways Com- mittee, but in the end the Council decided to adopt the report. In any case, it seems to us that if the proposal is accepted it is only fair and right that it should be applied all round. If the number will not be felt as a stigma, then there can be no reason why it should not be applied to private carriages. It has no doubt not unfrequently happened that accidents have taken place and damage has been done by private carriages which could not be identified. As we have said, we personally cannot see why either motor-car owners or carriage owners should object to being numbered if it should be considered advisable, but it is clear that discrimination against motor-cars would be regarded as most unfair and would be stoutly resisted.
But in truth suggestions like that of numbering are mere palliatives, and do not really provide a remedy. In our opinion, the true way to prevent reckless driving and to keep due control over motor-cars is to provide that no car capable of high speed should be allowed to use the roads except when in charge of a driver who holds a certificate that he is competent to manage and drive the machine. It might, we hold, be reasonably enacted that every car capable of going more than, say, fifteen miles an hour on the level should be under the ccontrol of a certifi- cated driver. For any minor breach of the law the cer- tificate should be liable to endorsement by a Magistrate, and in the case of any accident where carelessness, or criminal negligence, or recklessness could be proved, the certificate should be liable to suspension for three months, six months, or a year, as the case might warrant. In very bad cases the certificate might be forfeited altogether. This liability would make the holders of cer- tificates extremely careful to avoid accidents. If any accident occurred when they were exceeding the legal limits of speed, they would know that they could not plead contributory negligence, and that their certificates would be in danger. The professional driver would feel his live- lihood was at stake, while the amateur would be extremely anxious not to be deprived of the right to indulge in his pastime. At the same time that the certificate was granted the driver might undertake not to drive any car that was not fitted with a sufficiency of brakes, and his failure at any time to comply with this undertaking might be made a ground for forfeiting his certifi- cate. The authority to grant the certificate should be the police. In this way they would become cognisant of the names and addresses of drivers and their cars, and would be able to keep them under observation, in case of reckless driving. The examination in proficiency in the management of a car need not be a very difficult matter. The applicant would have to declare himself competent, and to prove his competency at a trial on the road, or else to produce a certificate from some recognised club or society or association that he had undergone their tests. To obviate the difficulty which would arise on the first application of the law, we would suggest that certifi- cates should be granted without trial to any person who would declare in writing that he had driven a motor-car on the roads regularly for the past three months, and could get one other person to assert that his declaration was correct. In this way all existing drivers would be certifi- cated, and,a sudden rush for certificates too big for the police to deal with would be avoided.
If this plan of certificates were adopted, no machines capable of a dangerous speed would be on the roads except when in charge of a competent driver, who would be most anxious not to endanger his certificate by reckless driving ; and the Magistrates would be able, by the suspension or forfeiture of the certificate, to clear the roads of dangerous drivers. But though we think that the plan of certificates should be adopted for all fast cars, we are bound to admit that hitherto the number of accidents cannot be said to justify exceptional legisla- tion. The motor-car, even when it is a fast machine, has proved eminently safe, and a less source of danger to the public than the bicyclist, the brewer's van, or even the waggon. Still, in view of the great extension which we believe is sure to take place in horseless traction, we think it would be wise to enact that fast motor-cars may only use the roads when in charge of properly certificated drivers. It is better to insist upon that reasonable form of regula- tion before any serious number of accidents takes place than to wait for a list of casualties that would completely justify such regulation.
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