INCREASING WON

Dominion, Volume 23, Issue 31, 31 October 1929, Page 10

INCREASING WON

SPLAYING BACK CORNERS One of the works the City Council has been’carrying out in recent years with immense satisfaction to motorists and the public .generally, is the splay-ing-back of right-angled corners.’ This has become a fixed policy. Whenever blocks of land come before the council for subdivision, and such subdivisions provide for new streets, the plans are only sanctioned subject' to an agreement which provides for the setting-back of corner sections, so providing for a wider angle of vision for all traffic. Similarly when new buildings are proposed for corner sections, arrangements are invariably made, where it is at all possible for a splay back. Good work in that direction has been done recently at Boulcott Street (at the top of Bummer’s Steps), on both corners of Park Street and Grant Road, on the corner of Pipltea Street and Mulgrave Street, at Levy’s corner, in Manner’s Street, Gilchrist’s corner, in • Wakefield Street, and here and there in the suburbs. Taking a line from a certain spot, on the left-hand side of a road, the splaying-back by 7ft gives an additional 25ft. of vision of the street round the corner, compared with the vision that would obtain were the corner a right-angled one. When the splayback is one of 10ft„ the area of vision is increased to 34ft. Possibly the best idea of the advantages of the splayingback of corners in Wellington is to be found at Seatoun, where over twenty years ago the local authority had the foresight to provide splays of 20ft., which are a splendid factor of safety for modern, fast-moving traffic.