Question of Control Of Sydney Traffic

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 96, 26 April 1939, Page 16

Question of Control Of Sydney Traffic

AUCKLAND EXPERTS’ VISIT SYDNEY, April 14. Two New Zealand traffic officials, ; Messrs. W. R. Fee, chairman of the Public Safety Committee of the Auek--1 land City Council, and Mr. C. Bland, • Auckland's traffic superintendent, came to Sydney last week to study traffic eon- » troi, choosing the busy Easter holidays as a real test period. They will leave for Melbourne at the week-end, disj illusioned and critical of what they saw. ” Sydney can offer us no help in the j problems of automatic traffic control and parking, and these are the main , problems we came about," said Mr. Fee. - “I was surprised to find that a city the - size of Sydney had so few automatic • traffic lights, and liad none at all at • busy intersections. The small city of Wellington has more automatic lights ■ than Sydney. Mr. Bland and I will be forced to visit Melbourne to study the automatic traffic system there." r Auckland has no traffic lights, Mr. Fee explained, but the City Council i wished to instal them throughout the city. As they only wanted the best, it ■ had been decided to study the systems of cities of Sydney's size. “We are not interested much in the old-fashioned L type of traffic lights which work on a set time signal," said Mr. Fee. "What we want to so is actuated Ights, which j are automatically switched on by traffic - passing over intersections, working i under heavy four-way traffic conditions. .Some of Sydney's few traffic lights are worked by actuation at certain periods, usually after midnight until heavy traf- , starts again in the morning. These can offer us no help. "It seems that Australian has solved . her parkling problems in much the same ; way as wo have ourselves," said Mr. Fee. "That is to have as much toler- , ancc between tho law and car-drivers as . possible. I have made a tour of the city during the last few days, and seen [ dozens of places where cars were parked • right beside no-parking notices. If the i regulations were strictly observed there would be chaos, I suppose." Mr. Fee said he would attempt to i discover how. much responsibility the i tr affic and city authorities to Sydney : were willing to take in the solution of » the parking problem. The cost of park* ! ing a car in a private area in Sydney ' wa s extortionate. Actually, Auckland had a more severe parking problem than - Sydney, he added, because the business \ centre of Auckland was much smaller t than that of Sydney.