HOLIDAY CAR TRAFFIC

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 119, 21 April 1936, Page 2

HOLIDAY CAR TRAFFIC

STANDARD OF DRIVING. Commenting on the standard of driving locally during the Easter holiday period, Mr H. J. Smith (traffic manager to the Palmerston North City Council), expressed the opinion that it was quito as good as the average. Much, had been made in certain other centres of fa.ults in motorists’ performances at the wheel, he said, but in Palmerston North, although the traffic had been heavy, there had not been an increase in the minor traffic breaches. At Easter there were on the road all classes of drivers and all lands of cars, he pointed out, but taking that into consideration the driving had not been bad. “I do not believe in decrying the motorist all the time,” remarked Mr Smith. “When there is an accident and a motorist is involved he gets the blame, naturally, because he is in the faster vehicle, the cyclist or the pedestrian not coming in for the same degree of blame. But if you take particular notice, as I did on a recent trip to Wellington, you will find very few breaches committed.” The service officer of the Manawatu Automobile Association (Mr V. P. James) thought that the standard of driving had boen no better and no worse than usual during the holiday period. The average driver in Palmerston North would compare very fayourably with the average from the larger cities, he said. Conditions were naturally a little different in Palmerston North because of the situation of the city. The number of motorists who drove in the city area every day was small in comparison with that from the country, and the latter used their cars only once a week, or perhaps less frequently. With them faulty driving or parking was generally due to not being conversant with the regulations governing such matters. Their cats might be found without the tail light burning, but it had to be considered that that possibly was one of the few times in the course , of a whole year when they had had occasion to use the lights of the car. In the larger cities there was a far greater percentage of drivers who were in the main city area all the time and who, by familiarity and through seeing other motorists doing the correct thing, fulfilled the requirements of by-laws or regulations.