HINTS ON REVERSE GEAR CHANGE

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 6 October 1934, Page 7

HINTS ON REVERSE GEAR CHANGE

An Art Hard to Master by Novices The hardest thing to master in learning to drive is reversing. Even when a knowledge of the locks has been accjuired, beginners find it hard to steer backwards in a straight line. One of tlie causes of this- is the sensitiveness of the modern steering gear, and the tendency to turn it unconsciously when leaning out to see if the way.is clear. Only practice will overcome the difficulty' of turning the wheel at the wrong time. New drivers often make the mistake of trying to watch both sides of the ear when reversing through a gate or into a garage. Provided the opening is large enough to admit the vehicle, with a foot or so to spare, the job is simple. Watch only the off-side of the car and steer it within six inches of the post or wall. Tlie near side will take care of itself.

When the wrong road has been taken, it is a mistake to turn into the nearest side road and reverse into the main road. Reverse into the side road or a gateway. There is always danger in backing into an important thoroughfare.

When a turning has to be effected on a hillside, with a sharp drop on one side, keep the radiator facing the danger. That is a sound practice in reversing under any conditions. When steering with, one hand is necessary in reversing, place it on the upper ” section of the wheel rather on the side. This is a comfortable position, and makes a slight movement of the ■wheel easy'.

Accident Prevention For some time past the public has been concerned about the enormous number of accidents that occur daily on the Toads. Every Tom, Dick and Harry, Molly and Sue, lias a car, a motor-cycle, or a humble push bicycle. .A vast, heterogeneous collection of people express the sense of freedom which money can give them by seeing as much as possible in as short a time as possible. You cannot enshroud these people with restrictions-: —there arc far too many now. You cannot sack them for a breach as would the railway' 'Company. The attempts to reduce the toll of the roads by Act of Parliament or Standing Order arc but poor palliatives they have very little result, as lias been seen. So really we are thrown back on the only remedy, which is the endeavour to get people, whether pedestrians or motorists, to be a little less selfish and thoughtless, for these are actually the main reasons for accident. It may take vears and it may mean that special measures of publicity and education will have to be adopted, but it is the only wav. Every motorist has seen acts of thoughtlessness and selfishness that make for accident, and in his heart knows the truth. Perhaps the feature which should give most hope is that the higher proportion of mishaps is due to thoughtlessness rather than selfishness, although the latter is more terrible to observe. The cure is plain. W’hen you, can get road users to understand the crime of thoughtlessness and the risk involved in selfishness, which includes reckless speed, impatience, rivalry, taking- risks, and a whole host of other things, then the job will be in some, measure done. It can be done, and it will have to be done sooner or later.

THOSE GLARING CAR LIGHTS ? Many Headlamps Still Out of Focus

Do v'our liendlights ‘‘ginie" - The I average motorist doesn’t know uhothei j ids headlights do of not, unless an actual test is made. What he does know is that about 50 per cent of the lights lie meets on the road at night do. The cause is . faulty adjustment. Sometimes one meets a car in which one light is properly ad justed and the other is out of adjustment, and it looks rather like some monster with one mild eye and one evil one. Recently a. campaign lor brake and headlight adjustment was conducted, but there still appears to be many yet whose headlights still remain very much out of focus. : There are some whose beams shoot up through the fog as though the cars were equipped with searchlights and were intent on exploring the heavens. Others —and there are a lot of them —have the beam so focussed that* it strikes an on-coming driver fairly in the eyes. Here is an important requirement: Elvery headlight attached to a motorvehicle shall be so focussed and adjusted'that when the vehiole is standing on a horizontal surface no portion of the main beam of light will be projected above the horiztontal plane of the lamp, or projected to a height which at a distance of 75 feet from the lamp is more than three feet six inches above such horizontal surface. EVerv lamp required to be attached to any motor-vehicle pursuant- to this i regulation shall display a light of sufJ ficient brilliancy to he visible under 1 normal atmospheric conditions from a | distance of at least 300 feet.