“4 miles to Christchurch”

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32524, 6 February 1971, Page 14

“4 miles to Christchurch”

Sir, —Recently I took a position which requires one to get from point A to point B as soon as possible, as well as deliver certain essential urgent requirements to persons in a hurry. The thing that has me puzzled after leaving "Greenhaven” via Burwood Road to come across an A.A. sign at the comer of Lake Terrace Road advising me I have four miles! to get to the city. How is it that 50 yards later, at the comer of Lake Terrace Road and New Brighton Road, 1 have four and a quarter miles to get to the city?—Yours, etc., W.W.W. January 20, 1971. [Mr E. S. Palliser, general manager of the Automobile Association (Canterbury), replies: “To comply with the National Roads Board’s manual of traffic signs, the provisions of which are mandatory for highways over which the board has jurisdiction and recommended practice for roads under other controlling authorities, distances on all fingerboard directional signs are required to be given to the nearest mile. lam informed by our chief service officer that the first-mentioned sign was erected in 1970 and complies with the manual. The second sign, however, is of older vintage and, on replacement, is due to have the fraction dropped. Personally, I have some reservations about the wisdom of omitting fractions of miles from the distances on fingerboard signs, particularly those erected in urban areas. As an N.Z.A.A. representative on the National Roads Board’s signs committee I propose to raise the matter for reconsideration at a meeting of that committee to be held on February 9.”]