MOTORING NOTES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXVI, 19 December 1935, Page 11

MOTORING NOTES

ROAD LIGHTING REFORM

SAFER NIGHT DRIVING PROPOSALS

(Bv Gerald Ely. London, for VThe Mail”)

It is probably true to say that-many people look upon the work of Departmental Committees as a wasteful' form of activity which enables a number of estimable people to gather round a table at the behest of some Minister of the Crown to draw up reports which will in all likelihood be pigeonholed. This assessment of the value of Departmental Committees is not, however, accurate where Transport Ministers call them into being. It is amazing how fond Transport Ministers are of such Committees and how often they adopt their recommendations —often to the detriment of the motor industry. That is why it is so essential to keep a close eye on any reports that emanate from Departmental Committees of the Ministry of Transport. -Much of the restrictive legislation which has hampered motorists without increasing the safety of road users, has germinated in, the Departmental Committee-room. Occasionally, however, these Committees produce recommendations which are of real value to all concerned —the fitting of safety-glass windscreens and the standardisation of the semaphore type of direction indicator are only two of a number .of beneficent measures which may be instanced. It looks also as though additional legislative blessings may be on the way via the l’ecommendations of another Departmental Committee for the Ministry of Transport. I refer to the report of the Committee on Street Lighting, which was published the other day. In this report, which is an admirable one in every way, for'it goes to the very root of the problems the Committee were asked to consider, important recommendations are made for the improvement of the lighting of built-up areas. The principal recommendation is that a minimum standard of lighting should be laid down for local authorities. In the opinion of the Committee this standard should be one that will enable drivers to proceed with safety at 30 miles an hour without the use of headlights. This is a decidedly sensible suggestion, and it is almost essential that it should be given legislative sanction, having regard to the fact that the speed limit in built-up areas is 30 miles per hour, and that the general practice is to drive right up to the top of this limit where conditions permit.

USEFUL RECOMMENDATIONS The committee make many other useful recommendations such as that there should be uniformity in the lighting of portions of traffic routes presenting simi. lar characteristics; that the responsibility for lighting should be vested in the large administrative units; that street lighting installations should be complete in themselves, and no reliance placed in extraneous lighting. What the Committee have in mind in regard to extraneous lighting is, presumably, the tendency of some authorities to content themselves with the fact that lit-up shop windows supply most of the iliumtnant in some places. In every way the Committee make out an unanswerable case for the co-ordina-tion of the road lighting system of the country as a whole. There are too many fingers in the road pie, and it would be conducive to greater safety if the construction of roads and their adequate lighting were to become the work of central authorities. It is on the whole a bad tiling to discourage local patriotism by taking away from local authorities duties which they have been in the habit of carrying out, but the roads problem has become so vast a

thing that special steps seem desirable. The safety and convenience of road users as a whole should form the primary consideration, and if it is only possible to ensure that all roads throughout the country are adequately lighted, by centralising responsibility, it ought to bo done. The ideal way, it seems to, me, would be for England to have one loading and lighting authority, Scotland another, and Wales a third. Officials in each constituent part of Great Britain [could then make plans for the whole area under their control, keeping, of course, to the standard laid down for the country as a whole. These officials would tour the country, decide which road or roads required better illumination, and order the lamps to be put up—at the cost of the State. POOLS OF DARKNESS Nor would they confine their activities merely to lighting the roads. It would be their job also to see that the roads are constructed of the best non-skid material available, that corners requiring it are banked, and that obvious danger spots are dealt with. It is clear from the Committee’s report that inadequately lighted roads form an important contributory cause of road accidents.

They declare, for example, that pools of darkness resulting from uneven distribution of light on the road surface, more especially in the case of inadequately lighted, roads, render it difficult for the motorist to judge distances and for other road users to estimate the speed of approaching vehicles. It is also stated that marked variation of lighting in any one thoroughfare may also cause uncertainty in the mind of the motorist regarding the necessity for using his headlights. The Committee, also agree that street lighting which may be described as patchy may be worse from the point of view of public safety than no lighting at all. These drawbacks to night motoring are familiar to every motorist, and are probably the result of more accidents at night in built-up areas than is generally thought. Most of us refrain from using our headlights in urban areas, but we do so at times at considerable risk when we encounter one of the pools of darkness mentioned bv the Committee.

If the time' is not ripe for the institution of great centralised road authorities, let the Transport Minister at least give legislative effect without delay to the main recommendation of the Lighting Committee that a minimum standard of lighting for all traffic routes should be laid down and enforced We know from the official analysis of road fatalities that the great majority occur in builtup areas. Here is an excellent chance of reducing these fatalities during the hours of dark.