Cars Parked In Darkness

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26123, 27 May 1950, Page 6

Cars Parked In Darkness

There were divided opinions when at a meeting on Thursday the council of the Automobile Association (Canterbury) discussed the lighting of parked cars in blackout hours in Christchurch. The chairman (Mr L. W. Broadhead) could not have thought widely about the question before saying that “ personally he could not see the “ danger. A moving car should pick

“ out an unlighted parked vehicle ”. But what of cyclists, to whom unlighted parked cars present a very real hazard? Night workers who have to use the streets in the early hours of the morning do, indeed, have considerable difficulty in seeing unlighted parked vehicles. The difficulties are increased by fog, rain, and wind; and they are increased still more when approaching cars fail, as they often do, to dip their lights. Mr E. R. Casbolt recognised that the* association has a duty to consider not only the interests and convenience of motorists. Drawing attention to the danger to cyclists, he said that any other obstruction on the road had to be lighted. He pointed also to the inconsistency of the Automobile Association spending a lot of money on safety propaganda yet opposing the safety measures sought by the City Council. The Automobile Association will act wisely and consistently if it urges its members to provide efficient lighting of some sort for cars parked on blacked-out streets. And it is not a small consideration that it would be advising observance of the traffic regulations, which are part of the law by which citizens are bound.