HOLIDAY TRAFFIC

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 143, 14 December 1938, Page 10

HOLIDAY TRAFFIC

CONTROL ARRANGED

BUSY TIME AHEAD

DUTIES OF THE OFFICERS

On busy main traffic routes throughout New Zealand, at race meetings, regattas, and athletic sports gatherings —in fact everywhere where concentration of motor traffic is anticipated during the coming holiday period, Transport Department traffic inspectors will be on duty to control the traffic and watch that the regulations are observed. The large task of organising the work of these men in the No. 2 Transport District during this, the busiest period of the year, has now been practically completed by the Chief Traffic Inspector of the No. 2 District (Mr. P. C. Watson), who has his headquarters at Wellington.

This district includes the whole of the Wellington, Hawke's Bay, and Taranaki Provinces and portion of Poverty Bay, including Wairoa and Lake Waikaremoana, and with only 24 inspectors, including temporary staff, available, the Chief Inspector has to make his plans with, great care in order to ensure that the many and widely-separated busy .points will, receive adequate attention. Last year there were 19 . inspectors, including temporary men, but there has been a considerable increase during the past year in the number of motor vehicles on the road. As is only to be expected at this time of the year the inspectors are required to,work long hour*, but as a compensation they receive time off as soon as traffic conditions will allow. "As far as Wellington is concerned it is anticipated that the holding of late Christmas shopping night on the Friday will, divide the traffic between that day and Saturday and thus result in easier conditions than last year, when Christmas Eve was on a Saturday and the traffic was all concentrated on that one night," said the Chief Inspector in an interview with "The Post" today. "We were also given extra trouble last year because many of the drivers on that Saturday night were tired and bad driving was the The' Chief Inspector will be on patrol during the holiday period and his car will be equipped with a loud speaker which, he explained, was particularly useful in heavy traffic. If a motorist did something wrong he could be put right on the spot instead of the inspector having to wait for a convenient place to stop him, perhaps a mile along the road from where the mistake was made. INSPECTORS' CARS. For easy identification at night as many of the inspectors' cars as can be dealt with in the time available are being equipped with a special electric-ally-lit sign in orange bearing the word "Inspector." Mr. Watson said that this should be a convenience to motorists who might for one reason or another want to communicate with an inspector after darkness had fallen. Special detailed instructions are about to be issued to .the inspectors engaged at each particular race meeting or other busy point, and individual inspectors will also receive a schedule of their duties during the period from December 23 to January 3. One inspector will be responsible for patrolling the coast highway from Lower Hutt to Eastbourne,, with attention to parking at Day's Bay. On December 23 and 24 he will be required to patrol his area from early in the afternoon until midnight, and on New Year's Eve he will be on duty until 1 a.m. on January 1. Other special road patrols have been arranged for the Johnsonville-Paeka-kariki section (including parking for the Paremata regatta), Lower HuttUpper Hutt-Brown Owl (including supervision of Awapuni race traffic), the section between Lower Hutt and Upper Hutt boundaries, Tauherenikau races, with special attention to traffic across the Rimutakas, Mangatainoka sports, Waipukurau races, Carterton trots, Stratford races, Taranaki races, Marton races, Palmerston North-Bulls main highway, Lake Waikaremoana regatta, the Frasertown sports near Wairau, and the Nuhaka Show on New Year's Day. The instructions include provision for special attention being given to what are considered troublesome or dangerous localities such as the Bulls bridge. This is a long one-way bridge and an inspector will be stationed there throughout the whole of the holiday period, and assistance will be given him to deal with special rush occasions, such as race days, affecting that route. The Chief Inspector pointed out that the main object of the inspectors would be to control and assist motorists as far as possible rather than look for opportunities to prosecute. With the cooperation of the motoring public he hoped that the coming busy, period would pass off without undue trouble or interruption to traffic in any part of the district.