Auto Gossip

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30946, 30 December 1965, Page 7

Auto Gossip

by

Well Behaved

That motorists were taking particular care to drive well was very obvious on Canterbury roads during the Christmas week-end. Although traffic was very heavy on the main roads it generally travelled at a good speed, cars kept well apart, and slower vehicles kept well to the left. This latter feature was particularly noticeable, and several times I saw caravans pull off the road to let faster traffic pass, so apparently recent publicity has had some effect. Kamakaze “If a traffic officer cared to stand outside ‘The Press’ building any week-nigh* between 10 and 11.30 p.m., he would see several children in VB’s and similar vehicles bent on committing hari kari when racing around the Square,” says a note which arrived on my desk this week. The remarks are more than justified. Crossing the road in this area, particularly by the pedestrian crossing, is a most dangerous undertaking at this time. A constant procession of badly-driven old crocks lurch and squeal around the Square at high speed, while some peel off and bellow down Worcester street. Badly Placed Traffic lights are useless if they are placed where motorists cannot see them. Obviously, you might say: but this is the situation at the intersection of Montreal street and Oxford terrace. Only one traffic light faces cars travelling north in Montreal street when they stop at the intersection. It is on the southwest corner, beside the stopped cars. The first two vehicles in each lane are so close to the foot of the high pole

A.J.P.

the light is out of the drivers’ field of vision. There are often trucks waiting in the left-turn lane; then the view of the traffic light is completely blocked from vehicles in the right-turn lane. Southbound traffic on Montreal street is released at a different time, so drivers cannot be guided by the behaviour of cars coming the other way. And so an accident situation is created . . . Caution New Year is almost here, and the best resolution drivers can make is to drive defensively at all times in the coming year, particularly in the next few weeks when traffic will be heavy. Watch out for the other fellow, and be prepared to save him—and yourself—from his mistakes. Whether following or overtaking, give him plenty of room. Adjust your speed to the conditions, and pay attentioh to your driving. And if you are towing a caravan or trailer do not hold up faster traffic. If necessary pull off the road and stop. Quote of the Week “. . . a young naval officer in Singapore, faced with the brutal truth that his 21-litre Riley had reached the end of its days, decided that a tropical scrap heap was not a fit end for such a car; instead he had it mounted on an aircraft carrier’s catapult, and as Her Majesty’s ship crossed the equator the Riley was dispatched in an honourable speedy and humane fashion.” —R. Thoresby, in the “Motor.”

A DRUM-TYPE speedo meter, a new version of the instrument sometimes fitted to American cars about 40 years ago, has reappeared on the restyled Buick Riviera.