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You and Yours听- Transcript 成人论坛 Radio 4 |
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TX: 13.01.05听 - INVALID TRIKES PRESENTER: JOHN WAITE |
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Downloaded from www.bbc.co.uk/radio4 THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT. BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 成人论坛 CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. 听 WAITE From the rails to the roads and the little blue three-wheeler car, known as the invalid trike, was once a common sight on Britain's roads but no more, as the very last one in the UK has now rolled into the garage for the very last time. The distinctive trikes, all government owned, were discontinued in 1976, and replaced by the Motorbility scheme, where standard makes of car were specially adapted for those with disabilities. And the little blue three-wheelers have been slowly disappearing from our roads ever since. Well Francesca Panetta has been to Norwich, to the headquarters of the Disabled Drivers Association, where that very last invalid trike is now on exhibition, to speak to Jim Rawlings of the DDA and to former trike drivers Enid Williams and Marion Webb. WEBB It had been sitting on my front garden for a few days waiting to be collected and it was a mixture of emotions really when it was loaded up on the breakdown lorry. It had been part of my life for so long - it's 55 years that I'd had various types of trike - so it really was a bit of life that went. I took photographs of it, thinking well I will never see it again probably. ACTUALITY PANETTA Enid what have we got here? WILLIAMS This is the last trike that was on the road. It's an Invacar model 70. Slightly more refined than the one I remember having. RAWLINGS From there being a maximum of nearly 24,000 running on the roads in the mid '70s, we come down to this last one, which is the last one to be known running on the roads in the UK. PANETTA I don't have a normal steering wheel here, what do I have instead? WILLIAMS You have a tiller bar, almost like the handle bars of a motorbike. You twist the handle for acceleration and to brake press the tiller bar downwards. RAWLINGS They were established initially for invalid ex-servicemen and there was a campaign to make them available to civilian disabled people. WILLIAMS The engine's at the back, there's no room for shopping in the boot. PANETTA And here on the left we've got "passenger carrying is forbidden". WILLIAMS Yes, most people did take someone with them. PANETTA That seems like an uncomfortable journey to me because it's just the floor of the car. WILLIAMS Yes I spent many happy hours on the floor of the car. MUSIC WILLIAMS I went out with someone who had a trike. At that stage I hadn't got one. I used to sit on the floor of the trike and keep well hidden from any passing policemen. We would go off to various parts of Yorkshire and my memory was a pattern of street lights and trees. WEBB I was nearly 20 when I had my first trike and until then I had never been out alone, having had polio when I was seven. So after a couple of months I managed to get a job. PANETTA And how did you feel when you were given this first trike? WEBB I was almost ill, I think it was nervous excitement, I was just so excited to have some independence at last but I soon got over that and went out nearly everyday. I met a lot of people, I joined the Invalid Tricycle Association, so socially my life completely changed. RAWLINGS To come over here to this other model that we have in the foyer at headquarters, this is the Stanley Argson. Single-seater again, hand operated, has a small petrol engine at the back, no indicators, no creature comforts at all, totally exposed, you could put a cover over your legs, like you would if you were in a wheelchair. And the founder of our association took this trike over the Alps in the 1940s. ARCHIVE I drove across France and Paris, Beaufort, then I got to Basel. I crossed over the Sustenstrasse [phon.] and then up the Folker Pass [phon.] was the big one. There it is - that's the Alps in the background and that's me rounding the last bend in the Folker Pass [phon.]. I actually tackled three mountain passes in my tricycle. And I went to Provence and met a girl, chatted her up in the street and she took me home and I stayed with her parents that night. Coming back I was journeying along and a drunk sailor got on the back of the tricycle because he wanted a lift, so I had to stop at a caf茅 and give him another drink and then disappear in the night, to get rid of him. WEBB Every year the Invalid Tricycle Association used to have a rally and we used to do relay races, passing the baton, and formation driving. There was a great gang of us, I still meet some of them now. This was me in my very first trike I had, that was the one I had in 1949 PANETTA How much did you have to pay for your trikes? WEBB Didn't pay anything at all, everything was provided - maintenance, insurance - all paid for by the government and a small amount of money for petrol. RAWLINGS When it got to the mid '70s it was decided they wasn't safe on the roads anymore and decided to withdraw the service and make money available instead for people to buy and adapt current production cars. The service was withdrawn in 1976 and the last one was to be allowed on the road at the end of March 2003. MUSIC PANETTA Did you feel safe in yours Enid? WILLIAMS I definitely did not, particularly one journey, it was very windy and I was travelling south on a raised road and the wind was coming from the west and I was absolutely petrified of being blown off this road. And I stopped in the next town and bought loads of canned food to try and weight the vehicle down. I was quite frightened then. WEBB I felt very safe. I never went fast because I knew my arms were weak. I just thoroughly enjoyed it and never thought about danger. RAWLINGS There was always a campaign to have small cars or more sociable things because it was a single-seater vehicle. And as they made them bigger, then they put weather protection on them, people got into trouble because they had children and they were riding inside the vehicle. MUSIC PANETTA So Marion what are you going to do now your trike has gone? WEBB I have been provided with a car by Motorbility that I'm learning to drive. It's a specially adapted car that I will remain in my wheelchair and drive from the wheelchair. I am finding it difficult, never having driven with a steering wheel before, but determined to master it eventually. I must do that. PANETTA As the trikes have been phased out do you think some people will not have transferred across to adapted cars? WEBB Yes, there's quite a lot of people that have become semi-housebound because they didn't like the idea of trying to drive a car after having driven a trike for so long. RAWLINGS Motorbility is the second biggest car leasing scheme in Europe now and there are 400,000 people who get the car under the Motorbility scheme. But the trikes were the foundation of that, they were the true liberators and have a part in turn to transport history as well as social history. MUSIC WAITE Oh wonderful stuff - some intrepid trike drivers. That was Jim Rawlings ending that report from Francesca Panetta. 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