SPEED WITH SAFETY

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 115, 16 May 1936, Page 30

SPEED WITH SAFETY

A PRACTICAL TEST

With a reference to the hare and the tortoise, why all this speed? asks an American writer. Is it necessary? Does a motorist actually gain anything,by; driving 65 or 70 miles an hour instead: of 45, or whatever the legal rate of speed may happen to be? To get the answer to these questions and' to be able to back them up with scientific fact, a test was recently conducted in California, where the legal rate of speed is 45 miles an hour. This test run was. made, between Los Angeles and San Francisco, a distance Of 411.3 miles. A stockl car driven by "Carinonball" Baker, America's oul> standing road driver, who has crossed the continent a hundred times, was selected for the test. Beside him sat a newspaper representative, who acted as official observer. Los Angeles was left at the same time as the crack flyer of the Southern Pacific Railway, and arrived in San Francisco just 40 minutes ahead of the train. . . How. fast did they drive? - Never over 45 miles an hour, the average for the- trip being 36.29 miles per hour. The milage per hour is based on elapsed time and not on driving time. They observed all' the; traffic ■ rules • religiously regardless of whether they were on the open road or within municipal limits. In doing this Baker had to shift gear innumerable times, come to complete' stops, in fact do exactly ■ the same kind of "driving that any other motorist!would have to do in making the trip.'arid iri spite of it all he averaged 26.11 miles per gallon. The run proved conclusively that excessive speeds .are;not necessary . in making' the cross-country runs that so many, people make in the summer time. Steady, consistent; sane driving at legal speeds will ge.t one .'there just as fast ■and in many cases faster, than speeds ' that break the traffic laws and some--1 times one's neck. ,',-■. ,