THE SAFER STREET.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19952, 20 November 1926, Page 19

THE SAFER STREET.

WIDE OH. HARROW ?

A WELLINGTON DISCUSSION. (Special to Daily Times.) WELLINGTON, November 19. At the Kent terrace inquiry before Mr E. Page, S.M., to-day, Mr L. Hunt asked one witnes- (Sub-inspector P. Harvey, of the polie) whether he agreed with the late Mr W. H. Morton, formerly city c~ -ineer, that wider streets meant increased danger in traffic. Mr J. O’Shea (city solicitor): You don’t suggest that? Mr Hunt: Not only did Mr Mortem report in that direction, but it is said to have bee— proved by accident statistics taken all over the United States that the wider the streets the greater the number of accidents, simply because wide streets mean more room for motorists to drive in, and, psychologically, the greater the area at the disposal of a motorist, the less concentrated is he on his wheel. Then, again, where there are narrow streets pepole can cross them in two or three seconds, but the passage of a wide street is quite a journey, during which anything may occur. One of the two deaths referred to at the inquiry yesterday was caused by an accident opposite the JJe Luxe Theatre, where the street is one of the widest in the whole of Wellington, When Mr L. M’Kenzie, a former city councillor,'visited Norfolk (Virginia) this year he was. surprised to find the streets of the old town every bit as narrow as those of Wellington, and yet they appeared to be carrying double the motor traffic. In the course of a chat with the city officials, Mr M'Kenzie remarked on the narrowness of the streets, and hou conductive such cramped conditions must be to accidents in this motor age. the officials smiled, for, as a matter of hard fact, Norfolk, with the narrowest streets of any city in the States, is said to be statistically the safest from an accident viewpoint/ so that the late Mr Morton only quoted from world experience when he mentioned that wide streets jneant a greater number of accidents.