BRAKES AND LIGHTS

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 50, 28 August 1934, Page 10

BRAKES AND LIGHTS

TESTING CONTINUED

THOUSAND STICKERS ISSUED

The inspection and testing of brakes and lights on niotor-vehieles has been in hand for about a month and in that time roughly a thousand vehicles have been-marked with the yellow sticker as passed by the city traffic inspectors for the time being—the pass does not, of course, last for ever.

There are 12,000 -motor-vehicles i" the Wellington area, so that there is still a lot to be done. A much larger number of cars could have been inspected had the policy been to hold up long lines of traffic, but the inspectors have endeavoured, as far as possible, to delay, traffic flow as little as possible. . \ ■ ( Certificates as to correctness of light adjustment and efficiency and good inechaneial condition of brakes issued by reputable garage proprietors arc being accepted by the inspectors, but sample tests of certificated lights and brakes are made. Though only a thousand- stickers have been issued, probably at least three times as many vehicles have been looked over in garages, so that the good effect of the brako and light campaign, has been very considerable. Presumably the same progress is being made in other districts; at any rate it was the aim of the Transport Department, in recommending tho scheme to district authorities-, that the eleaning-up of faulty equipment should proceed simultaneously in both North and South Islands. PARKS AND MASCOTS. The development of streamline car bodies, with a long rear overhang, has brought another little problem for traffic inspectors, for when certain of these lieu- cars are parked with their rear wheels against the kerb the, overhang extends well over the footpath, and the poor old pedestrian has to dodge on his own footpath as well as on the road. Angle parking will probably put this right. Wellington inspectors to whom the new idea in car mascots was mentioned had nothing to say officially, but they had a good deal to say , unofficially, though they admitted that there was nothing they could do about it. "If a car owner likes to decorate his car with a dangerous mascot, notwithstanding the unnecessary risk run by the other follow, I suppose that is his business," said one. "A year or so ago every second driver had to have a Guy Fawkes with a broken ilcck dangling inside his rear window. That was a great idea; it amused him and hurt no one else. That craze died and possiblj- the mascot- craze will fade away, the quicker for tho recognition that it is dangerous."

As far as he knew, ■ lie added, no one had been spiked on a mascot in the Wellington district, but a South Island man had had an arm badly ripped ■ and another ' motorist had speared a. cow so badly'that it had to be destroyed. • ,