WELLINGTON TRAFFIC

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 207, 29 May 1936, Page 15

WELLINGTON TRAFFIC

Tallies Taken in Busy Thoroughfares SOME SURPRISING TOTALS During the past year in Wellington many may have observed men standing at vantage points and dotting down marks on sheets of foolscap paper supported by light boards. These men have, day after day. been taking a tally of the traffic in certain key streets of tbe'eity with a view to formulating a record of the volume, movement and variation of traffic in Wellington. The last complete traffic tally was one taken by observers over a period of live months, from October to February last. Those figures were shown and explained by Mr. G. N. 'l'. Goldie, the town-planner on the staff of the city engineer, at the annual meeting of the Royal Sanitary Institute.

Some of the figures are surprising, for instance, that during the ten hours of the count in .Tervois Quay 14.21-12 vehicles passed by. an average (neglecting peaks) of 1423 per hour. That is the heaviest traffic flow in Wellington. It is not possible to summarise the figurs in any nearly complete way—for iilrcnil.v five months’ work has been boiled down to a single sheet—but main facts can be given.

Commencing from the northern entry to Wellington some of the main counts made were (all day hour counts, 8 n.in. to It p.m., increases over previous tally shown in parentheses) :— Hutt Road. 6017 (3.1 per eent.); branch to Tinakori Road, 701 ; Thorndon Quay, 5525. At Lambton Station branch trailic had added another 700 vehicles and at Bunny Street the figure was 71)87. There is a division of trailic in the turn to Whitmore Street from Featherston Street, but more cars and lorries pile in; 2G37 were tallied in Featherston Street, but the Customhouse Quay count was 12,868 (27.8 percent, tip). Side streets take away Jess than they and and the top figure of 14,232 (1G.4 per cent, up) was returned from a point in Jervois Quay, just north of the tire station.

Beyond this point trailic divides and the count showed 10,162 (19.7 per cent.) in Wakefield Street and 2281 for Cable Street.

An interesting point is that the volume of trailic in Taranaki Street south, in its length between Courtenay Place and Ghuznee Street, where it is only 49ft, Gin. wide, is heavier, 5204. than in the 80ft. wide length between Wakefield Street and Courtenay Place, 5100.

Trailic through Wakefield Street and Courtenay Place combined to give a lotal volume of 9943 for the ten hours in Kent and Cambridge Terraces. This is almost a lifth heavier than was shown by the previous tally and much heavier than the volume of pre-tunnel counts, partly liccause there are more vehicles on the road, but also because the Evans Bay Road to the eastern suburbs has now no popularity with every-day drivers. The tally there gave only (’>ll vehicles, no more than in a residential street. The Carlton Gore-Hataitai Road route now carries practically no through traffic.

The count' for the tunnel was 4177, and 5G45 vehicles went on south from the Basin and 2032 over Constable Street.

Lainbton Quay is not an alternative route to Jervois Quay, but carries a special business and shopping traffic. The count was G3G4 at the corner of Grey Street. In Willis Street the tally was 7991, of which about 1600 were trams. By the time city shopping traffic lias reached the Opera House, much of it having turned off into Cuba Street, the volume is well reduced: at that point the count was 4 501.

9’llol’o are several routes to the western suburbs. The tallies gave these figures: Aro Street (at the turn from Millis Street). 1456; Salamanca Road. 23.85; Sydney Street, 953, near junction with Tinakori Road; mid near the same point in Tinakori Road, 97G. Mr. Goldie explained the purpose of the records, from which, he said, it was possible to plan ahead, instead of merely guessing ahead, and perhaps guessing wrongly.

Wear Eliminated. A motor-ear engine that never wears out is promised by experiments being carried out by a big Gloucestershire engineering linn. Tile experiments are the outcome of a new process of steel hardening invented by a Dutchman named Van dor Horst. His new ehrome-liardcned steels are declared to be the hardest metals yet used in motor engineering under commercial conditions.

So hard is the new metal surface that it is claimed that carbon deposits cannot remain on it—and so the motorist.’s fear of a coked-up engine are, if is believed, killed. A secret method of electrolysis is used. The cylinder walls are more highly polished than glass, and are so hard (hat it is impossible to scratch them. Apart from cylinders, bearings can also he treated.

So far tests have been confined almost exclusively Io Diesel engines. The exceptionally smooth surface run ho used for coating Hie leading edges of aircraft wings to prevent the formation of ice.