NEW SPEED LIMIT

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29742, 8 February 1962, Page 7

NEW SPEED LIMIT

: Traffic Checks Planned i “The Press" Special Service WELLINGTON. Feb. 6. The Transport Department 1 will soon take special speed checks with concealed microwave gear on major open roads to find how well the new 55-miles-an-hour speed limit is being observed. The checks would not be used for traffic prosecutions, said the Commissioner of I Transport (Mr A. E. Forsyth). Last week Mr Forsyth travelled about 1500 miles on main roads. Driving at between 50 and 55 miles an hour, he found himself overtaken by very few vehicles. The last series of checks on open road speeds, taken • when the limit was 50 miles | an hour, showed that about I 85 per cent, of all vehicles did | not exceed 54 miles an hour. ' This was regarded as reasonable and was one factor in the decision to raise the speed limit to 55 miles an I hour. Until the change, motorists I could generally travel at up I to 60 miles an hour, provided I they were not driving dan- I gerously, without fear of I being apprehended for speed- I ing. “Once they got over 60 I miles an hour they would ] probably have got a ticket” I said Mr Forsyth. “Now, al- | though the new limit is 55 miles an hour, we have tightened the margin we allow. “As long as they are not travelling at more than 60 miles an hour, drivers will stall be fairly safe from prosecution. But we are cracking down on dangerous driving—at any speed,” he said.