OFFSIDE RULE

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 9, 11 July 1934, Page 4

OFFSIDE RULE

A WORD' ABOUT EYES

OBSTACLE OF THE PILLAR

MlGUti IN DMVING

It hns heen suggested to tlio writer! that a camera placed at eye level in tho diivhig seat of a, car would give the -viewseen by vthe driver from his ■place at. the wheel. This has been I done at various times iv different ! places, but the camera is wrong. A .driver does not see as the camera sees: not -that he has a recording, or rather selective brain, or intelligence using .that brain, but.that his eyes are differently mounted. It is "a common belief that a stereoscopic camera reproduces the view seen by a normal person, but this ilso is. a misconception. The pair of pictures that give the stereoscopic view are merely two pictures taken from, a lens at points three mehes apart, horizontally, or by paired lenses at similar separation. Viewed through, the stereoscope these give the quality of solidity, or depth, and so distance can be gauged from this quality, instead, of by perspective. The solidity of tho stereoscope, however, is by no means equivalent to that gained by the eyes aireetj if it were, the stereoscope wonld. never have lost its popularity ana its charm. The solidity of the .stereoscope is harsh, and even a moving picture could not remedy it. .. Close your left eye and mark what you see with the right. You find that a whole field of vision to the left is cut sharply ;ofE down the nose, am! that the eye is recording a wide field to.tlio right. Now, close tho right eye- aiid open the left, and you have the reverse,, a blank to the right and-a wide field to the left. The two eyes act together as a wide angle lens would act, covering a field of approximately 180 degrees, nearly enough, for any movement within this area to attract attention. . •■■■■.■ Stereoscope pictures' are quite different from this. They are merely tlio same picture taken;. from the slight separation, of tjiree inches or so apart, and enclose practically: the same view. It is only the central portion of their fiold that tho eyes see stereoseopically. The use' of ;a pair; of narrow angle stereoscopic ' lenses might approximate it, but they cannot repeat it. Wide angle stereoscopic effects are always ladieally wrong. ' SEP ABATE, BUT ONE. ■" Although the eyes' cover the wide held, -we have mentioned, they c'au be focused only on. a-point, the same point, working as one eye. The angle included atereoseopically is relatively small.- Outside this.field each eye records separately, but does not really SEE. Should any movement occur,, anything attract "attention' there, the -iCiviGes of the 'o'ther'eye are at once lequisitioned, and both eyes look that way. / ; : The handicap of,.a. one-eyed man is fair more than the loss of solidity. One lens of the stereoscopic camera will berve as well as the other if an ordinary picture for ' ordinary purposes is all that is needed. The eyes are quite different. The loss of an. eye cuts off one side of tho iield; if the left eye lias gone, the right is "eoeked" to get a front view effect; if the right has gono, the left is "eoeked." "What has all this to do with the right hand, or any. land, rule of the road, you -wonder? r'More tlian one might think. .Ijet'iis proceed. ' . Another point jtbpnt the camera; aY the driver's seat is : that the camera remains still.; The driver, however, little as he may realise it,.spends the whole of his,,time at the wheel dodging, a pillar> and dodging'a great many more obstacles that, the- car persistently places in. his way. All day long he is trying; to see more than tho car will let him.see; One moment it is the right .eye that, cries out,; the next the loft. Inside .tJie"_car, outside, constantly and ill the time .those, eyes are working. Wei c the work ' confined, merely to seeing, say-j as .a cricketer has. to see, or <v tennisplayer ; "billiards, golf, the intense effort of. trying to focus so many things at so rapid a pace as the motorist has to do,, would be bad enough, but obstacles are placed in the way. Can you imagine a batsman having to sight the ball round a. pole or a tennis player receive his services through a hoop. Yet that is what the motorist must do all the time he is at the wheel, ana.it is this, to a, large extent, that accounts for the intense eye- fatigue that" follows a hard clay's duving. Golfers are well aware that taking the -wheel to the links is a short load to defeat in the competition. Turn your thought now to the motorcyclist. Was" there. : .evei- person on eaitli. who haa anathema cast so abundantly upon him as these peats of the road, as- so .many people, with honest indignation, regard tjiemT But have you ever considered the inotor-eyclist Js .point'of view..There-is, just 360 degrees of it—reference not to mentality. Mentally, he presumes upon, it, ana he presumes uponitin fact. The" fact itself, however, .should not bo lost sight,of in any discussion that may arise in connection with the riders of these machines. They have an enormous advantage' in relation to ordinary road vehicles, and that advantage, combined with the mobility of the machine itself/ puts the m6.toT-cyelist".iTito a category quite remoye,a from the car. BACK TO THE HUTT KOAD. Discerning readers no doubt noticed that nothing was said about drivers who wished to leave the main. road. Now, the Hutt Road is an anomaly, but there are others in the Dominion alan to it. The Hutt Eoad has a bitumen centre, and out at the sides are two strips of metal, along which horsediawn, vehicles are supposed to proi ted. Most other surfaced roads in tho Dominion also have m.etal strips on the outside,'but on these,'most frequently, it is sßfe for nothing-to travel. Outgoing drivers- have no trouble in leaving the road, as-all that is required is a simple'turn to the loft; A-signal may be given, the slowmg-down signal with .thfe; right- hand. It might not mean much, but it would, at least, have tho merit of signifying something. JTor thoso not acquainted with the road it may be explained that it is bounded on the harbour (right) side by tho. raiXi\ay, and all the side roads braueli from the left. . . These roads on the left in several / ises are exceedingly difficult of access roi cars making the inward trip, and the customary practice'is to pull out on to tho metal on the railway side and wait there till all traffic, inward and outward, has disappeared, or sufficiently slackened to permit the road to be. crossed. Actually, what the driver doea i-5 to turn a T junction into a crossioads. He converts- following traffic into traffic, as.it were, proceeding from the right. He thus -creates three streams of possible" traflie now to bo crossed, the two streams on. the HuttEoad itself, and one or other of tho streams on the side road. The method has the merit of safety—you must wait for everything to clear—but it is hardly a method that would succeed in America or Britain. You would be treated as a picnic, and remain "put." Were the metal strip not there, or equivalent width whero it is all bitumen, the incoming driver would hold out his right hand signal and hold up following traffic until such time as he «ould make the 'turn; It would require courage- to take this course now, and most likely, the manoeuvre jaould fail^

nnless one bore far enough to the right to imperil outward' traffic, completely blocking tho inward stream. This, however, is precisely what occurs on the ordinary- two-car road. Traffic from the rear-must wait until the car in front has made the turn.

England has no right-hand rule and America has no left. What happens there—and in other countries as well— is that a driver wishing to make such a turn holds out tho necessary signal, and all. traffic, both rear and front (approaching), tho signal being in their plain forward view, give way. New Zealand did that once, but it is fivegenerations of drivers ago. We have introduced a new race; we have taught our youth to look to the jight. Signals are of no account;. You hold out your hand, but the cars continue to roll by. You are compelled to remain until the traffic ha.s cleared. You are a danger to'yourself,'a threat to others; you may cause a blockage; you may even promote a head-on collision. Ycm can only move when your right is clear.