MOTORISTS' TRIALS.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18152, 15 August 1924, Page 5

MOTORISTS' TRIALS.

(fROM OUtt OWN COBSESPOXDEKT.) SYDNEY", August 6. Tho motorists of Sydney aro undergoing all sorts of little trials just at present. First, there is tlio movement to remove tho petrol pumps from tho footpaths-—'a course of action which, if earned into effect, will very greatly inconvenience them. They aro presenting u monster petition to tho Chief Secretary in. order to try to block the move. Then there is their vigorous protest against tho introduction of a new traffic regulation regarding sido lights, which, it is considered, instead of increasing the safety of traffic will rather make it more dangerous. Tho new regulation, they assert, is not in conformity with the law in England or in tho big American cities. But tho motoring community is perturbecx above all by the wholesale borrowing of ears by joy-riders during the weekends, when tho cars happen to be left in the streets by their owners, sometimes only for a minuto or two. Many of the ears are recovered, not a few in a damaged condition, by the police, but others aic never seen again. The authorities are now using a gang: of detectives simply to recover cars which havo been stolen and left abandoned ; but tho police attitude is that tho motorists are not helping them as they might- do. A question no?r under consideration is whether the traffic regulations should be ameuded to make it an offence for a ear-owner to leave his car in the street unattended, unless it is provided with some mechanical contrivance to prevent tlio engine from being started.