SPEED GUESSERS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 16 July 1927, Page 15

SPEED GUESSERS.

POINTS OF DECEPTION. The average person who professes to be a judge of speed would be easily confounded if his abilities were put to the test. A skilful driver becomes acquainted with the .feel of his engine at certain speeds and he can usually guess within a 20 per cent, error. When in the seat of a strange vehicle he is at a loss to form any estimate of the rate of motion, and from the footpath lie views passing cars with little advantage over the pedestrian who has mover touched an accelerator. It is obvious that the driver of an expensive six-cylinder car which will run without vibration at 60 m.p.h., will over estimate speed when sitting in a cheap four-cylinder car which performs noisily and violently at -10 m.p.h. Conversely the. motorist accustomed to urging his mass produced four along at .‘55 m.p.h., would find himself tending to send a well-baalnccd six over the road at an easy 45 m.p.h. Road widths are seldom taken into account by the person who attempts to judge speed from the kerbside. A car moving at 40 m.p.h. on a one-chain road gives an impression of recklessness, but vehicles travelling at 40 m.p.h. on an open beach seem to crawl. A road across open country tempts a driver into more speed than he thinks safe when the roadside is fringed with hedges and trees.