A FINE TANGLE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 137, 6 December 1930, Page 10

A FINE TANGLE

THE HUTT ROAD

NEITHER STREET NOR

HIGHWAY

WHO IS GOING TO PAY ?

(By "X.")

The "convenient" classification of the Hutt road (Thorndon to Petonc) as a city street under the City and Suburban Highways Act, has led to any amount of complications and puzzlers, over speed regulations, over control, over maintenance, and now it appears that the classification may como homo to roost with a. vengeance, and that the City Council, so anxious iv thq early days of the paving scheme that this.road should be a city street, m«y find the obligations also handed ovxr to it .as city obligations. .' The riossibility has been pointed out previously during discussions upon the advisability-—now regarded as the neoessity—of widening the- pavement. Particularly unsatisfactory has been, the city street classification as regards speed control. In fact, .as well as in. classification, -the Hutt road is city street as far as Ngahauranga (or a few yards on the Wellington side of the township) for the city boundary cuts across the road at that point. Under the Government motor regulations, as confused by the city bylaws, tho maximum recognised safe driving speed is 25 miles-an hour as far as Ngahauranga; beyond that point the maximum jumps to 35 miles an hour (with tho exception of tho township lengths). Under tho same regulations again three cars may be abreast (i.e., A may overhaul B while C is passing in the opposite direction) in the length between Thorndon ami the city boundary, for this is borough area, but beyond the boundary A may not overhaul B while C is approaching, let alone passing B. Tho rule is set out clearly in Regulation 11, section 8: "Two vehicles meeting each other shall have tho right of way; and, except on a substantial straight lqngth. of road, in boroughs and town districts, no driver of a motor vehicle to the rear of either of such two vehicles shall pass or attempt to pass either of such two vehicles while they are passing, cacti other, and no driver of a niotoivehicle overtaking two vehicles one of which is abreast of or passing tho other shall attempt to pass either of, them until they are clear of each other." In nine out of ten eases accidents on the Hutt road, serious and trifling, arc due to tho breaking of this three abreast rule, but that does not deter motorists from continuing to break it most cheerfully and riskily, inside the city boundary or outside it. The regulation is very seldom applied by the traffic officers. BYLAW AND REGULATION. Because there has always been this confusion of city street classification and city boundary street length, speed control over tho road has been unsatisfactory since the State regulations were applied, for though tho recognised safe limits are 25 and 35 miles an hour tho regulations is so elastic that just about anything is permissible if you can get away with it. The 'old 30 mile limit worked much more satisfactorily from a control point of view, though it was admittedly too low, but when the City and Suburban Highways Boaid wanted to increase it by five miles ..n hour, behold the road was, from the motor regulation point of view, a city street to Ngahauranga, and on that length 25 miles an hour was the recognised safp maximum. A definite higher bylaw speed was therefore not to bo made. The board got out of it by scrapping its bylaw speed altogether (except through Kaiwarra and Ngahau* ranga), and it is a case of go as you please as long as you miss trouble. WHERE IT MAY HURT. Those points, however, are not necessarily costly to the local bodies, but it may be that the city street classification will work out expensively for the city in the long run. Tho board, with the approval of the Main Highways Board, has decided upon widening the bitumen pavement as far as Ngahauranga—i.e., over the length that is actually city street, and it has likewise approved of other paving work which will wipe out the whole of the existing borrowing authorisations, leaving nothing for the Ngahau-j ranga-Petoiio length. The Main Highways Board has said quite clearly that the Hutt road is not a main highway from its point of view, and that .therefore it will not help to meet the bill for tho ever-mounting maintenance cost. For the time being a quite pleasant working arrangement has been made between the City Council and tho various other contributing bodies—tho Petone, Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt, and Eastbourne Councils, the Makara and Hutt County Councils, and the Johnsonville Town Board—whereby tho extra maintenance cost is shared between them, but this sharing does not exactly appeal to small bodies which are rather more hard up than the hardup City Council, and they may begin to turn over in their minds that point of the city street right to Petone. Moro food for financial thought is given when one considers the widening that must be undertaken beyond Ngahauranga very shortly, not merely for the convenience of drivers, but to save the present pavement and to reduce macadam maintenance charges. A GENERAL MIX-UP. There may bo nothing much in the thoughts of some outside local body members that as the City Council insisted that the whole road should bo classed a city street the City Council should regard it rj a city street, but the position is certainly very unsatisfactory. Tho Main Highways Board says it is not a main highway, the City Council says that it is, and that it is not a city street; other local bodies begin to think that tho Act is right enough on that point and that it is, and, just to add the finishing touches and properly decorate tho whole, it has been suggested tbat inquiries should be made as ti whether there is not some way whereby this city street which is not a city, street can bo roped in as a county road, so that the Maiu Highways Board may bo called upon to help foot the bill for a main highway which, being a county road, cannot be a main highway, but is entitled to nnacial help just the same. Some day tho ta.uglo will be less tangled..