AUCKLAND STREETS

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 108, 7 April 1926, Page 4

AUCKLAND STREETS

CHAOTIC CONDITIONS. AUCKLAND, April 6. . Any unbiased, unprejudiced, reasonable mind must concede that street conditions in Auckland have become chaotic, notwithstanding the by-laws and regulations. Traffic is more or less out of hand. The change from horse to motor transport has been too rapid fo? a steady development ol' control. Proof is partly found in the daily record of accidents. Accidents are inevitable, of course, but the price that the community is paying in life and limb for tho new vehicle, that is everything from a great asset to a wonderful toy is far too high. There are rush hours when a stranger from a Utopian planet would imagine that a section or the drivers had became possessed, a minority fighting with frenzied impatience for the light to rush ahead and tho remainder endeavouring to hide the anxiety they feel over tho irresponsible behaviour of others, with pedestrians often foolhardily skipping to and from safety zones at great personal risk. Our stranger could not be blamed if he formed a wrong idea of the sanity of the community. Certainly the sight can hardly be regarded as a proof of progress. There can be no control without compulsion, and so far there lias not been enough compulsion to fix strict safety first principles in the mind of every motor driver. It is nob suggested for a moment that the majority of the drivers are at fault—the majority drive with care and with every regard for the safety of other vehicles and of pedestrians, but the minority of irresponsiblos is sufficiently large to cause the cliuos. The chief offenders, ono is convinced, are drivers of buses and heavy commercial vehicles. Knowledge that if a collision occurs their vehicle is not likely to bo the unlucky on© is partly the cause of their readiness to take risks. Another factor is that usually they themselves will not be the losers should their lorries he damaged, and in the case of buses a factor is competition among themselves and with the trams. These rushing, hooting juggernauts destroy tho confidence of car drivers in whom iiersonal ownership is a strong curb on the inclination to go at high speed, and so confusion is sproad. Then there is the occasional driver who shows the effect of intoxocating liquor, and adds to the trouble in the face of traffic.

In scores of busy places the inadequacy of tho -control is evident. Tho present measure of control is exercised partly by the police and partly by tho City Council officials, but thore is a crying need for a much more comprehensive system. As it is tho full force of the city’s traffic department is not engaged whore it is most wanted because of the calls in regard to motor licensing and the like. If the problem is to bo tackled, and it must be tackled, control methods will have to move much faster than they have done. An independent traffic board has been suggested, but whatever, form the controlling authority takes the crux of the matter will bo tlieir power and its exercise. Some sharp lessens will have to bo taught before the large proportion of offending drivers realise that their license to drive does not grant them license.