AS BAD AS SYDNEY

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12322, 17 December 1925, Page 5

AS BAD AS SYDNEY

PROBLEM OF JOHN STREET fLOW OF TRAFFIC THROUGH BOTTLE NECK 600 VEHICLES IN AN HOUR Who would compare Wellington’s traffio with that of Sydney? Yat there is not that difference between the Australian city with its million population and the capital of the Dominion which might be supposed. Figures prove it. Recently in a Sydney daily there appeared statistics of the How of traffic round Hyde Park corner and through Oxford street —the road to the populous eastern suburbs. This area, esteemed Sydney’s most dangerous corner saw 26 vehicles passing to and fro every minute, and by actual count from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. 1496 vehicles went hr. Of this total 281 were trams. 186 motor-cycles, 804 motor-cars, 150 horse-drawn, and 75 cycles. > Wellington cannot muster up such a Formidable total, but it can provide a corner with some startling statistics. The John street-Adelaide road intersection has leapt into importance since the conclusion of the work on the new tramway route,'and the corner now is considered one of the most dangerous in the city. On Friday. December 4th. from 4.30 to 5 n.m 340 vehicles nassed the corner, and from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. 625 vehicles went by. By count on December 14th 278 motor-cars passed the corner from 4.50 to 5.20 p.m.. proceeding both ways, 79 street cars went by from 5.25 to 5.55 p.m., 177 motorlorries in the hour from 4.45 to 5.45, while statistics taken next day concerning horse-drawn vehicles show that from 4.50 to 5.20 p.m. 60 passed the corner, and that from 5.20 to 5.50 p.m. 52 motor-cvcTes swelled the traffic. An estimate of the traffic for half an hour thus gives something which is not a Hyde PaTk corner, hut possesses a volume of traffic something more than half as great. Certainly it is as bad as some of Sydney’s corners. To deal “with this the council has live traffic inspectors. Auckland has 18, and Wanganui 5.