Board Seeking Uniform Markings On Highways

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28699, 24 September 1958, Page 14

Board Seeking Uniform Markings On Highways

(From Our Own Reporter)

WELLINGTON, September 23. Research to ensure that all New Zealand roads are marked in a uniform manner is now being conducted by the Transport Department, the D.5.1.R., and the National Roads Board. If an appeal to be made later to local bodies is not successful, there is a possibility that legislation will be introduced next session to standardise road signs and markings in the interests of public safety. Officers of the Transport Department and the Roads Board are working on a standard system for marking centre lines, and the D.S.I.R. is conducting experiments to determine the most durable paint to be used on road surfaces. A suggestion that roads should be marked on their edges instead of by a white line in the centre was discussed at a recent meeting of the Roads Board but members claimed the idea would bring extra expense without contributing materially to safety.

“To carry this out you would have to. remark all the roads,” said Major N. A. Rattray. “This would cost £lOO,OOO a year to maintain throughout the State highway system. It is hard enough to maintain the centre line now.”

Mr P. W. Breen said he did not think such an innovation worth the expense. There should be a Standard marking, however. Too much variation existed even on main roads.

Engineer’s Opinion . The board’s engineer (Mr L. C. Malt) said he thought the present system, with self-illuminating markers at roadsides, had its merits.

Replying to Mr Breen, who said he thought a solid white centre line was unnecessary, Mr Malt said: “What is needed Is a longer dot with a wider space, so that when a car is moving at night with lights dipped, the next dot becomes visible when the previous

one is just disappearing under the mudguard." Mr Breen: If we could be sure of a line, whether continuous or broken, along the middle of a road, that would be something. In many places on main roads, there is no trace of a line.