TRAFFIC CONTROL

Evening Post, Issue 52, 2 March 1935, Page 28

TRAFFIC CONTROL

CONDITIONS IN ENGLAND

MEASURES FOR SAFETY

(By Nelle M. Scanlan.)

It will be a long time before traffic congestion in New ■ Zealand reaches the menacing proportions that now threaten transportation in England. And not only transportation, but life. Every week an average of about 150 people are killed on the roads, and more than a thousand injured. That makes a huge total at the end of each year, and over a decade is quite formidable. But New Zealand can learn from the present predicament of this old country, and avoid the pitfalls, and plan wisely for the future. Mr. Hore-Belisha, the Minister in charge of this department, has been extremely active and experimental. He is prepared to try almost any device that will render the roads safe, and reduce the growing death-roll. To limit the speed of vehicles meant a series of police-traps, without any great improvement. With the increasing speed of cars, this limitation cannot be persevered with, as it leads to obstruction and delay, often with serious consequence. Where the vehicle is new, high-powered, and driven by an experienced man or woman, and the road is wide and free, there is no need to limit speed. But in what are termed the built-up areas, that is where there are houses adjoining the road, speed must be reduced. The police are now co-operating with Mr. Hore-Belisha's department in analysing all road accidents, and finding out the black spots in the country where the death-rate is consistently high, discovering whether the killed or injured are pedestrians, young or old, cyclists, motor-cyclists, or motorists. Also the age and condition of vehicles involved in accidents, whether the drivers are men or women, their age, and a score more particulars. With this accurate data in front of them, they hope to evolve further regulations.

. There seems to be no end to the controversy as to whether it is safer to dim headlights at night or not. The recent regulation prohibiting the use of motor horns after 11 p.m. in London and the area surrounding the town, has proved so successful, as far as the elimination of night noises, that it is to be extended. Many people believe that the prohibition of motor horns during the day would also help in eliminating accidents. It is held that many motor hogs "drive on the horn" and scatter petrified pedestrians with a violent honk, and scare lesser vehicles out of their way in. sheer fright. Without being able to give this peremptory warning, they would not dare io cut in dangerously, or dash past people at crossings.

The beacons at pedestrian crossings, which indicate where you may cross with comparative safety, should, if systematically used, reduce accidents in the towns. But people will still take the risk of crossing wherever they like, and, so far, there is no penalty imposed on pedestrians for this fault. That may come, however. In April, no new driver will be granted a licence without first passing a driving test. Here, up to the present, you may buy a car, get your licence, and go out into the stream of traffic, without the slightest knowledge of how to drive a car, if you feel so disposed. More accidents, however, happen, to experienced, though reckless drivers, than to the novice.

Mr. Hore-Belisha's dream of the future envisages wide roads, with a division down the centre, separating the two streams of traffic, and so eliminating head-on collisions. There will also be cycle tracks, for the millions of cyclists that wobble about the roads. The cyclists are protesting violently at this proposal, and claim the right to remain on the highroad. There will also be footpaths for pedestrians. All cross roads will, have a centre obstacle, making them roundabouts, or else they will be "fly-over junctions," where one stream of traffic rises and the other descends, and one passes above the other. At suitable intervals there will be crossings.

Next month a speed limitation of 30 miles an hour will be imposed in builtup areas, but there is - always a tendency to step on the accelerator to make up for time lost in such places. Bus, motor-coach, and lorry drivers, who have to keep to a rigid timetable, are among the victims of this system. All through the night there is a vast stream of motor trucks and lorries passing between Londond and the big industrial towns of the north. An enormous amount of transportation is done by road from door to door, and much of it is by night, and private motorists often prefer the risks of normal day traffic to the menace of these huge trucks which come rushing through the darkness.