SPEED OF MOTORISTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20263, 24 May 1929, Page 15

SPEED OF MOTORISTS.

SUGGESTED LONDON LIMItS. COST OF TRAFFIC DUTIES. "In the London metropolitan police district traffic duties of one kind or another absorb the time of about 1303 men, the total cost being £420,000 a year." This statement was made recently by Mr. A. L. Dixon, an assistant secretary at the Home Office, giving evidence befo?:a the Royal Commission on Transport. Mr. Dixon added that during the last three or four years a number of police authorities had made local arrangements, generally on a small scale, for the employment of persons other than regular police on traffic duty. Traffic signalling at cross coads could, he thought, be performed by persons without police powers, provided they were well trained and sufficiently fit physically to stand the strain of continuous traffic duty. Evidence was also given on behalf of the Commissioner of Metropolitan Police by Mr. Herbert A. Tripp, an assistant secretary, who said that the self-seeking driver who forgets every interest except his own is as anti-social a unit of society as the burglar, while the effect of his acts is far more serious. To the polics, it was of the utmost consequence that they should not be asked to enforce any speed limit save with the approval of public opinion. At the same time the police would wish to see public opinion taking anxious and increasing notice of the growing toll of human life. A speed limit for light cars of 35 miles an hour in general, and 20 miles an hour in specified areas would, he said, give great help toward general security. Mr. Tripp added that so far as the metropolitan police were concerned speed traps were set only in places considered to be dangerous.