ROAD SAFETY

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 50, 27 August 1938, Page 10

ROAD SAFETY

MOTOR-CYCLISTS' EFFORT

DOMINION MOVEMENT

SUGGESTIONS MADE

The report of the New Zealand Autocycle Union to be placed before the Boad Safety Council at Wellington on Tuesday next indicates that substantial progress has been made in the movement by motor-cyclists to minimise the number of accidents among their number. Support has been given by practically the whole of the North Island motor-cycle clubs and it is also stated that the combined Canterbury Eoad Safety Council has accomplished wonderful work in the South Island. Sub-committees are being set up in every centre to deal with lectures, films, etc., awards, publicity, education, and road safety magazine, and patrols. Special sub-committees are being formed in Wellington to work in conjunction with the Transport Department. The new publicity and education subcommittee, Wellington, has already done valuable work. The president, Mr. F. E. Jones, of Wellington, co-or-dinates the activities of North and South Island. The assistance of dealers is being co-opted. EDUCATION OF NEW RIDERS. The opinion is held by the ifew Zea-. land Auto-cycle Union that in some districts tests for motor-cycle licences are inadequate. It recommends the, clubs in these centres to make representations to local authorities for the tightening up of the test. The union j considers also that some form of education of the new rider (and driver) is absolutely essential, and that this education might well be provided by a course of six to eight interesting lectures, assisted with films and other material, during the learner's early experience. With the assistance of the Department, the union is arranging, through sub-committees appointed in every centre, for the provision of the lectures in correct technique, road sense, and road courtesy. The union feels that this scheme should be worked in conjunction with a scheme for the provision of learners' plates. The clubs believe that no road safety educational process is likely to be effective without proper provision being made for visual education through films and, accordingly, are forwarding ideas regarding films to the Department. They are anxious that the films should be "shot" as soon as possible and in this connection are keen to give every possible assistance. GOOD RIDING AWARDS. With the assistance of the Transport Department, the following system of "good riding" awards has been instituted throughout New Zealand:—-d) The awards shall be open to all motorcyclists throughout New Zealand, free of charge. (2) A motor-cyclist entering for the award will notify the motorcycle road safety committee in his district or a representative of the New Zealand Auto-Cycle Union of his name and address. The period of award will be calculated from the date of notification. (3) When a rider has completed twelve months without a notifiable accident or a conviction for a traffic offence he will receive a special certificate or diploma, showing his name and the year of the award. He will also be entitled to obtain at nominal cost, a stud or pin on which his name and the year of award can be engraved. (4) The certificate or diploma will be awarded annually. When a rider has received four consecutive certificates and qualifies again the following year, he will receive a bronze badge or an insignia for his motor-cycle, the badge or insignia being engraved with his name and the year of the award. (5) Each subsequent year which the rider completes without notifiable accident or injury will be engraved on his badge or insignia. When four consecutive years are so engraved and the rider qualifies again the following year, he will receive a silver badge or equivalent insignia engraved with his name and the year of the award. (6) Each subsequent year after the award of the silver badge or insignia, which the rider completes without notifiable accident or injury will be engraved on the badge or insignia. When four consecutive years are so engraved and the rider qualifies the following year, he will receive a gold badge or a special insignia, engraved with his name and the year of award. Subsequent years of award will be engraved on this badge or insignia. (7) The certificates and badges will be supplied by the Transport Department. The motorcycle road safety committee or the club or representative of the New Zealand Auto-Cycle Union will be responsible for the recording of names and for the administration of the awards.

To encourage riders to enrol, the union is of the opinion that riders with three months of accident and convic-tion-free riding should have to complete only a further nine months of "good riding" from the date of enrolment, to be eligible for their first award.

Any motor-cyclist, whether a club member or not, enrols with the nearest club on a special form supplied by the Transport Department. He is given a red and gold "I ride safely" transfer to affix to his cycle, and an "application for award" form, which is filled in on the completion of a term of 12 months. The report deals also with what is being done in the interests of publicity and education. Publicity sub-commit-tees are being set up throughout New Zealand, and the clubs are in the preparation of radio and other publicity material. The union suggests also the publication of a small magazine every two months for distribution free to every motor-cyclist. In this way it is considered that continuity, which is regarded as being absolutely essential in the road-safety educational process, would be maintained. MOTOR-CYCLE PATROLS. Another branch of the greater safety movement is the establishment of motor-cycle honorary patrols. These have been rendering valuable service for several months in Christchurch, and for lesser periods in the Auckland Province, in the Manawatu, and in a number of other districts. The system is being gradually extended throughout the Dominion. Patrols are supplied with a form, and when a report is received by the Road Safety Committee of the district that a certain motorcycle or motor-car was observed travelling in a way it should not have been, the committee writes to thej owner of the vehicle pointing out that! its object is purely humanitarian and asking the rider's or driver's co-opera-1 tion in road safety. j

The union is strongly of opinion that drivers and riders responsible for some act of conspicuous courtesy should be rewarded by a letter from the Transport Department and later by some badge, emblem, or insignia. The patrols who carry no visible indication that they are patrols will make these "good deed" reports, and if the local committee feels that the "good deed" justifies the letter, or award, they will forward this form to the Department for action.