OFF-SIDE RULE.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 79, 3 April 1928, Page 8

OFF-SIDE RULE.

TRAMS TAKE PRECEDENCE. J ADVANTAGE OVER MOTORS. PROBLEMS FOR DRIVERS.

"In connection with the Press Association message published on Saturday giving particulars of a resolution of the South Island Motor Union, protesting against the exemption of tram cars from the off-side rule, it is interesting to note that the same point was raised by the Auckland Chamber of Commerce some months ago," said Mr. A. G. Lunn (president of the Chamber) to-day. Mr. Lunn added that attention was drawn to the confusion likely to result under such circumstances if city-bound trams and motor cars running on parallel eourses arrived simultaneously along Broadway and Remuera Road at the junction of these two thoroughfares.

He said that presumably the train from Remuera, hjeing on the right, had precedence over the tram from Onehunga. Did this entitle the motor cars from Remuera to move along with the tram from the same district, or must they give way to the tram from Onehunga, inasmuch as that tram, under the new regulations, bad precedence over the motor car? In the latter alternative, what was the position of the motor car drivers from Onehunga who had other motor cars on their right? Must they remain stationary while the tram from Onehunga moved on ?

The whole position would lead to confusion and congestion, as the corner J would necessarily be longer in being relieved than if trams were subjected to the off-side rule. The" Public Works Department replied to the representations of the Chamber of Commerce to the effect that there was no power under the Motor Vehicles Aet, 1924, to make regulations affecting tram cars. The Chamber then suggested that it was important that such power should be taken by statute if none existed under the Act already in force.

In the course of subsequent correspondence the Public Works Department made the point that the tramways in all cases entitled to precedence on the grounds of the large number of people it carried and the fact that it was already subject to retardation in transit by reason of its numerous passenger stops.

The Chamber of while admitting the theoretical force of this point, felt that the confusion and increased congestion likely to result from the exemption of tram cars from the off-side rule entirely outweighed thin point of view.