Traffic law

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33065, 4 November 1972, Page 14

Traffic law

Sir, —I consider one of our road rules to be difficult to put into practice in some situations. This is the rule which requires you to reverse directly to the opposite side of the road if you wish to back out of your drive and move off to the right from your home. I live on a main highway and find it a very hazardous operation. Like others I have spoken to, I now find the only safe way is to back immediately in front of my house and drive forwards across the road as soon as a gap in the traffic appears. This, I now find, is against the law and classed as “failing to keep to the left.” I would be interested to hear other readers’ opinions on this matter.—Yours, etc., CONCERNED. October 26, 1972.

[Mr A. I. Garriock, traffic superintendent, Ministry of Transport, Road Transport Division, comments: “Your correspondent would be failing to keep left in the circumstances outlined. He could stop on his correct side of the road, then, with a left turn, reverse up his drive. He would then be able to drive out with more confidence and visibility when a suitable gap in the traffic occurred. Should ‘Concerned’ have a problem peculiar to his situation on the highway the department would be pleased to discuss it with him.”]