ROAD INTERSECTIONS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 85, 20 October 1928, Page 27

ROAD INTERSECTIONS

STOP SIGNS IN AMERICA AVith a view to reducing the number of accidents at dangerous road intersections, some of the States in America have introduced a regulation that calls for a momentary stoppage of car wheels at specified and marked crossings. It is claimed that the result has been satisI factory. There has been a slackeningoff in the number of side collisions between cars at tho proclaimed intersections. It is also stated that the method j does not cause appreciable delay, or hold-up of traffic, because it results in dangerous crossings being in a claar condition. i AVhere second gears are higher than usual, it is best to drop into low when using the engine as a brake in descending very steep hills. An automobile road from Cologne to Bonn has been planned by the Ehenish Provincial authorities. It will be designed as a super-highway. Worn-out motor-cars, will furnish tho raw material for a new steel plant in Kansas City, a company having announced plans for salvaging ears consigned to the junk pile. There are 85,636 motor busses in operation in the United States. More than one-half of them are operating as common carriers on established motor transportation systems. Nothing will damage paint and varnish more quickly than dusting, the reason being that tho dry particles of dust are minute abrasives, and they cut through the screen of varnisb. Varnish is the protecting medium of the colour; without varnish the paintwork would rapidly deteriorate, so that each minute scratch admits tho air to the paint, causing its rapid destruction. If a paint and varnish job is cleaned only with . cold water and not dry-dusted it will retain its appearance for three or four years. Tho greatest care should be exercised never to cause the slightest abrasion to the varnish. Have you ever thought of lightly setting the emergency brakes when the rear wheels won't take hold in the mud? This cuts down the wheel speed and makes for a steadier pull in the mire, Don't use the service brake for this purpose, if your ear carries fourwheel brakes. It will defeat your purpose to have the front wheels holding the ear back. Disc wheels that ha\re not been tightly bolted up are likely to create noise to greater extent than the ordinary spoke wheol, the discs being in a sense sound amplifiers. Some motorists are satisfied if they tighten up bolts on the wheels when the ear is on the jack, but it is always desirable to again test the tightness of the nuts when the car is on the ground and tho load is on the wheel. ■Mr. S. F. Edgo believes that the imposition of the petrol tax in England will achieve a good purpose if it com■pels people to think in the direction of lighter care. He considers that tho future of the motor-car is wrapped up in much lighter vehicles for the transport of a given number of people, that is, in the evolution of a car with a considerably more favourable ratio of weight to power. That, he says, is the thing which will cheapen the motor-car eventually, although primarily it increases tho expenditure, because more costly materials are required to give decreased weight and still retain the necessary strength.