CYCLISTS ON BITUMEN

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 132, 5 June 1937, Page 8

CYCLISTS ON BITUMEN

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—ln your issue reporting a case brought against a cyclist, you state that "under the new traffic regulations cyclists must keep as close as practicable' to the left of the road, and this means that where the macadam is fit for riding, they must keep off the bitumen1." The first part of your statement is correct, but I can find nothing in the regulations which can justify the second. If the law is to be interpreted as above with respect to cyclists, then it must apply equally to motorists, because regulation 14, section 1, reads as follows: "Every driver of a motor vehicle shall keep the vehicle as close as is practicable to his left side of the roadway." This would mean, of course, that motorists using, the Hutt Road, particularly between Ngahauraiiga and Petone, would be committing an offence if they used the bitumen, because there is ample room on both sides of that portion of the road for motor vehicles.

With regard to the borough of Lower Hutt, where the alleged offence took place, a great many of the streets are paved only in the centre. The macadam in. most cases is quite unfit for cycling, especially at night, owing to1 loose surfaces and too much, camber. The streets in Lower Hutt are constructed and maintained with funds supplied by the ratepayers, the great majority of whom are cyclists. Policemen cycling in the borough habitually use the bitumen wherever it is available, and the number of cyclists who use the macadam is negligible. Attempts to force cyclists into the gutter, and off the roads which they themselves help to pay for, are foredoomed to failure. —I am, etc..

ALFRED E. MILNE, Cyclists' Touring Club.