ILL-CONDITIONED ROADS AND USERS

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20979, 6 October 1933, Page 17

ILL-CONDITIONED ROADS AND USERS

■lO TRE EDITOR OS THE PSESS.

Sir,—l am a middle-aged man who rides a light two-stroke motor-cycle, for the simple reason that I like to be independent of distance, and I cannot afford the more comfortable car. I am no speedster; 40 miles an hour would be the extended limit of speed possible to the machine. I have acquired much road sense by experience, graduating from the days when I drove restive horses in the hilly country of North Wales, before motors were reliable, to the driving of a white steam car, petrol cars, and motor-cycles. I have driven all over the United Kingdom in pre-war days. Jn 1920 I came out here and drove a car until recently, when funds no longer allowed. In the course of my 13 years out here I have driven over all sorts and conditions of roads, but for sheer unpleasantness a ride to Akaroa and back on my motor-cycle last week-end takes a lot of beating. I have made this trip many times before, in car, on a push cycle, and on a motor-cycle, but the stretch of road from Tai Tapu to Little Hiver is quite the worst bit of main highway I have encountered in any country claiming to have proper main roads. It is too narrow, flanked by deep ditches, the shingle is deep and treacherous at bends and sides, und in places the corrugations nearly

break the front forks of a light j machine like. mine. All that I can put up with, and making the best of things skid on cheerfully, but what I do protest about is the attitude of some motorists to us more humble users of the road. 1 should have liked to have had one or two of the drivers who passed me seated on my cycle, and seen them endeavouring to skid out of the track to the side of the road, especially at bends. I am no road hog in the sense of hugging the best place for myself, and I realise the necessity at all times of riding to the left of the road, but when people come suddenly behind you round a bend no twowheeled vehicle (push or motor-cycle) can immediately skid off through a foot of shingle to the edge next the ditch—with a nice drop over into variegated greenstuffs. Also a car crossing one at speed sends the stones flying round the unprotected road traveller like shrapnel. In brief, the whole thing boils down to utter lack of consideration for others which seems a la mode these days, another example of which is the way motorists splash through puddles on a wet day, regardless of pedestrians near. Just a little thought for others would obviate all these things. In conclusion, I am sure Akaroa township, and Little River too, would benefit considerably by the concreting of this stretch of road, for the main roads on the peninsula itself, though steep, of course, are well surfaced and offer no terror;; to a competent driver, but the first stretch from Christchurch must, deter many people from proceeding further.—Yours, etc., W.Y. October 5, 1933. P.S.—I forgot to add that one car owner had collected long faggots of wood. These he had tied insecurely on the back of his car, and they were falling off all along the road across the track. He found out this just before the Gebbie's road turn!