LONDON'S TRAFFIC

Evening Star, Issue 22515, 7 December 1936, Page 5

LONDON'S TRAFFIC

AN AMERICAN'S VIEWS Writing in the 1 Daily Mail.’ Mr Thomas P. Henry, president of the American Automobile Association, who was in London studying traffic conditions, states:—A motorist in America is * man who wants to go-Somewhere, and intends to. get there—quickly. If he doesn’t meet anything on the way, he succeeds. . When he takes his car to the Continent of Europe he still Ends he can go ahead in something like his natural style—but when be gets his automobile into London he feels he has overshot the red lights and run suddenly into a strange and very bewildering world where all motorists are magicians, SO MANY RULES. Lately, I have driven my car from Naples right through Italy to Venice, and thence through Austria to Paris. - Paris makes a motorist realise he is on wheels, but there is no city in the world where he has got to be more wide awake than in London. If he had eyes nil round his head be would need to keep every one of them very wide open. You see, there are so many things to be on the look-out for here, and so many rules and regulations to be thought of that it is a wonder any motorist remembers to start his engine. I think there is a great danger in loading the motorist with too many rules and regulations; of, course, many of them are essential, but you may go on adding to the list until the poor motorist becomes quite dizzy, and accidents happen because he is given too much to think about while he is at the wheel. V . One might say that you have only Just begun "to make motor cars in , Britain —what, then, will motoring in \ London be ’like when the factories • really begin tp flood the country ? Vl, It seems to, me you will be forced By circumstances to simplify the pre- ■ sent very complicated “ book of rules ” ;fot .motorist's. MOTORISTS’ CONFERENCE. . Your Minister of Transport, Mr Hore-Belisha, has done a great deal of very fine work in the campaign for safety on the roads. I appreciate his ‘ insistence on care . and caution; I share his horror of the daily slaughter on the roads. In my owft' couptryv that slaughter has in- ■ last year about 36.000 people were killed in the United. States. Not long ago we bad the idea of going to motorists themselves for suggestion on, how to make the roads safer. , . The American Automobile Association appointed “ judges,” who selected in every State a motorist, man or, woman, who had driven 50,000 miles’, without . 'any sort of accident or infringement of the motoring laws. Those thus selected were invited to attend a special conference held in New York, at which they gave—as first-class motorists—their views on traffic problems and the best ways of solving them. It was very significant, I think', that every one of those motorists expressed th econviction that the best safeguard against accidents was what is called in Britain “ the courtesy of the road.” Now let me say this: Whenever ! motor in London, or anywhere else in Britain, I am most deeply impressed by the almost unfailing courtesy of other motorists on the road. Indeed, I am continually being made ashamed by the good motoring manners here, for in my own country most ’ motorists show very little regard for other people's rights or feelings—when they set out for anywhere the fellow in the way has got to look out! YOUR WOMEN DRIVERS. It occurs to me, then, that perhaps the traffic problems in London will be solved as much by your people’s natural courtesy as by restrictions and re- ■ gulations. As » motorist myself I have been made much aware of the “ Belisha beacons ”; they strike me as being very numerous. ' Your traffic control lights are working well, but are they as numerous as they might be? In New York we have them at every corner—and they certainly slow up the traffic and make the roads safer for pedestrians. London’s traffic runs more smoothly than New_ York’s—and much more quietly. Ninety pier cent, of the hooting of cars in the world is unnecessary—and here in your country you have proved it. You are humane, considerate of other people’s feelings; yovfr Minister of Transport has only to point out that many of your fellow-citizens are being robbed of their sleep bv the hooting of cars at night, and at once the noise is stopped. Even women drivers hoot as little as possible in London. And they seem to be as clever in handling their cars as any man have seen in all Europe. In America there is a saying that “ a woman driver only wants one part of

the road, but can’t make up her mind which part it is.” Well, they can’t say that of women drivers over here. When every motorist drives with his brain as well as with his hands and feet safety will he “ first ” —all over the world.

But what are you going to do with London’s traffic in the future? You’ll have to do as we have, done with New York’s—run it overhead!