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Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19812, 27 December 1929, Page 4

"Roadster" invites articles and paragraphs of interest to motorists for this page. NOTES. i.onipllsorv third-party insurance is vii'.v m the limelight and may statute Book. It is oinctrely to bo hoi-etl. suys --Motor Cycling." that it it "must i/*■ introduce*! its many dirhcul-ti..-a and pitfalls will hrst be thorexamined, it hao been tug--«teu !>v some newspapers thai ad-unni-trutiou would resolve itself mto terms 01 "•no policy, "° driving license " This would give the licens!,i- authorities a difficult task, if not ri,. 0 impossible one under present-day ,-onditions. How would they deal with the man who rides a motor-cycle one week and drives a lorry the next r Would he have to pay a year s prcnimm at iorrv rates r And what ot the man who,- comprehensive policy gives tlnrd-partv <over wbilst riding a named machine:- Would this hceiise allow him to ride only that one machine- Similar difficulties arise A it' is that the insurance should be associated with the vehicle license. What of the man who owns two machinesr He can ride only one at a time and yet needs two vehicle licenses. Ayain. it would be necessarv +o provide for vehicle owners who take out part-year licenses and lay up their machines tor several months at a time whilst the insurance companies would be called upon to cover an unknown ri-k in the form ot the skill ot The person who happened to be driving the vehicle.

On April Ist last Wiesbaden abolished it-s street cars and substituted cutobuses for them. It was the first large German city to take this step. The report of operations for the first h ilf-vear just published, shows a net profit of more than 200,000 marks. This is particularly worthy of note because the lowest fare in Wiesbaden is 15 pfennigs, against 20 pfennigs m the neighbouring cities of Frankfort and Mainz. The new omnibus system has a total length of about 37 miles, not quite half of which was served formerlv bv the street ear.

Through co-operation of the German Railroad Company and the German Automobile Club (A.D.A.C.), warning signals have been experimentally installed at two unprotected gradecrossings near Berlin. They show a white ligh£, visible also by day, winch flashes about 50 times a minute The train releases a contact about 1000 feet from the crossing, and a red light begins flashing 80 times ft minute and continues until the train's last axle has passed.

Berlin police authorities have come to the conclusion that the majority of motoring accidents in tlie city are caused by drivers who ignore the regulations. A central department will, therefore, card-index every driver, and all warnings and penalties will be entered upon the cards. After a certain number of warnings have been incurred a driver will be automatically liable to a penalty, and when a certain number of penalties have been recorded his license will be withdrawn.

At the recent meeting of the directors of the National Automobile Chamber of in New York, it was stated that August production, based on the factory shipment figures, was estimated at <316,522 units, which was approximately the same as the position for July, and 5 per cent, ahead of the figures for the similar period last year. The total American industry production for eight months of the present year is 4.446,000, a new record, and 37 per cent, above that for tho same period last year.

The road construction programme m Iceland is resulting in the rapid substitution of the mot«r-car for the pony as a means of transportation. During 1928 the number of motor-cars in operation in Iceland was increased by nearly 100 per cent., the total number of cars in operation at the close of 1928 being 310 passenger cars and 492 trucks. During the first half of 1929 it is estimated that roughly 320 automobiles, of which a very large proportion were trucks, were imported into Iceland and, as the unsold stock of motor-cars is small it may oe taken for granted that approximately the same number has been put into operation during the first six months of the current year.

The rule of the road in Gibraltar, which, since Great Britain first held the fortress, has followed the English svstem, has been altered to "keep to the right." The reason for the change is to facilitate traffic with Spain and to avoid the frequent accidents that have occurred near the frontier owing to the confusion arising out of contrarv rules of the road.

It is stated that some 165.350 private vehicles have been produced in England during the current year, an increase of approximately 3000 on the 1928 figures. Production falls a little short of the estimate of manufacturers a* the beginning of the year, but the position is said to be satisfactory, following the prediction of a number of experts that Britain had reached saturation point.

Plans have teen laid before the French Ministries of Interior and Transportation of a project linking Paris by an overhead motor road with Nice, Marseilles. Toulouse, Bordeaux, Brest. Lyons, and Geneva. According to the scheme, the roads be carried cm reinforced concrete pillars at a height of about twenty-five feet and would consist of two one-way tracks, each about twenty feet wide. A large proportion of the heavy initial expenditure. it was suggested, could be covered by the importation of materials from Germany under the reparations plan and the upkeep could be more than met if motorists paid a special tax ot 100 francs a year.

A novel wedding which retailed the line.:, of the old Victorian song. "Daisy Heil." took place at Cardiff, when the bride and bridegroom arrived at the church separately on pedal hicycles, and rode away together after the ceremony on a tandem, states an English writer. All the guests cycled to the church r.nd all were dressed in their touring kit. As the bridal party left the church they had to oass under an archwav formed of bicycle wheels. The bride was Miss M. Rees, Longcross street. Cardiff, who is secretary of the :>outh Wales District Association of the Cyclists' Touring Club, and the bridegroom Mr Fred Jones, of Cardiff, a former secretary of the same organisation The honeymoon was spent on a tandem through the Lakes of Killarney district. Though markets have been relatively quiet in Malaya for the past year localise of the rubber situation, both registrations and road building are increasing. Singapore is noted for its good roads and road-building is gome forward rapidly all through the Malay peninsula. According to a reoent repor^. no fewer than 34,306 driring licen*e> were issued to women motorist* in France during the past year.