MODERN MOTORING.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 96, 24 April 1928, Page 20

MODERN MOTORING.

TRAFFIC PROBLEMS.

IWTER-BLOCKS SPEEDS. FOUR-WHEEL BRAKES ESSENTIAL. "Will four-wheel brake* nn all motor cars solve the present trullic problem which is confronting nearly every large city'.'" The question was recently propounded by an American writer, following experiments and observations covering several hours a day at'the peak of trallic. His conclusions are of interest: "Not including taxi-cab drivers, but basing observations on cars driven either by chauffeurs or owners it was relatively easy to see that cars equipped with fourwheel brakes were liist away as 'go' signal was flashed, and seemed to travel greatest distance between flashed of signal lights.

"The observations were made after a thorough study of makes and models of cars equipped with brakes on tour wheels, so that guesswork was eliminated.

"The apparent reason for greater speed of these cars between signals lay in the sense of braking safety afforded the driver. Question* asked at random from a sufficiently large number of drivers revealed the answer that they usually drove at a speed inside the safe stopping limit of their cars. In other words a man would drive at .'SO miles an hour between traffic signals if he felt sura that at this speed he could stop his car within the distance separating him from the car ahead. Eliminating the personal equation of relatively slow and relatively fast drivers, and basing deductions on an average, it appeared that the average driver would make better time if he were using a car with four-wheel brakes."