UNNECESSARY PASSING AND NEGLECT WITH SIGNALS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 255, 24 July 1936, Page 17

UNNECESSARY PASSING AND NEGLECT WITH SIGNALS

Minister Mentions Important Driving Faults

Drivers, in pulling out from the kerbs and from parking places, do not put their hand out or make any signal, and there is also a lot of unnecessary passing of other cars on the road. So said the Minister of Transport (Hon. 11. Semple) in an interview this weelc, when he dealt witii some aspects of safety on the roads and the justification for an intensive education campaign to include adult and child.

The Minister lias put a finger on two outstanding features of motor driving to-day, though, so far as handsignalling is concerned, Wellington motorists are more lax than tlie drivers in any other centre in the Dominion. The extent to which Wellington motorists by force of long-ingrained habit simply forget all about the necessity for hand signals Is abuitdantly obvious to the stranger motorist, because he expects signals and does not get them. The Wellington motorist, however, knows, also of habit, that he need expect no hand signal, and he acts with, shall we say, suspicion, toward every car parked by the roadside. or toward every car that he may be overtaking. Drivers have learned through their own neglect and that of others that they must take no chances. It follows in many other driving actions as well. For instance, motorists expect to find other cars,- even unlighted at night, parked or halted on or just around corners. They expect them to stop at any old tinie to drop a passenger. In fact, no Wellington motorist is at all surprised at what any other Wellington motorist does. Driving carelessness has become a habit, and no one seems to worry greatly about it. When a driven wishes to pull out from a kerb he does not signa] in any way; he may shoot out dangerously in front of passing traffic, or he may just nose out, leaving the overtaking vehicle to take its chance. And when drivers are nulling in to a space, they just slow down or dive in without any consideration for what is following.

Along Lambton Quay, when a driver wants to park on an angle, he just slews out into the roadway. No signals are given. Traffic has to look after itself. When cars emerge from the angle parking area they just emerge; they arrive, so to speak, and in the absence of any warning by hand or honker, the passing driver must look after himself. And on a wet, murky evening, the danger to passing traffic is markedly accentuated. Sooner or later the authorities will have , to do something about the abuse of parking privileges in this particular area. The Minister’s reference to the unnecessary passing of cars was also amply justified. Of course, out on the open highway, far too many drivers moving along at forty or forty-five miles an hour are stupid enough to want to do sixty because the man in front is travelling a little faster. A spirit of bravado grips them, and it is easy to develop racing tendencies. It is easy to fall into dangerous ways on the road. The cultivation of driving poise and tolerance is a necessity. No driver should give another grounds for irritation. In the cities, however, this mania for being first, for passing the other fellow, becomes the sheerest folly. Risks have to be taken in cutting in, unnecessary speed is required, and all to what purpose? It means that little, if any time, is saved, time, by the way, which is often wasted at the first tram or traffic light stop. But tlie fool driver has beaten the other chap, and that achievement outweighs all considerations of risk to anyone.