CONTROL OF TRAFFIC

Southland Times, Issue 23000, 21 September 1936, Page 6

CONTROL OF TRAFFIC

NEW MEASURES

TIGHTENING UP OF INSPECTION

WARRANT OF FITNESS FOR VEHICLES

(From Our Parliamentary Reporter.) Wellington, September 20. Proposals for a more effective control of both vehicular and pedestrian traffic are contained in a draft set of regulations which have been circulated to interested organizations by the Minister of Transport (the Hon. R. Semple) through the Transport Department. The principle underlying .the proposed issue of the regulations is the promotion of considerably greater safety for all types of traffic. The regulations aim at a tightening-up of the standard of fitness required for motor vehicles. One clause states that after November 1936, except where special licences have been issued, there shall be carried in every vehicle a warrant of fitness, taken out not less than six months previously. A fee of 5/- will be payable for each warrant. Special precautions are to be taken to ensure safe loading dimensions, especially at night. While the former rules of the road are generally repeated, there are special additional regulations covering the rights of pedestrians. Regulations dealing with speed include a “master” regulation stating that no person shall drive any motor vehicle at such a speed that it cannot be brought to a standstill within half a length of the clear roadway ahead. An important section of the regulations deals with the hours worked by lorry drivers. It is stated: “No person shall drive a trade motor for commercial purposes if, by doing so, he would be driving fox- any continuous period of more than five and a-half hours, and for continuous periods, amounting in the aggregate to more than 11 hours in any 24 hours. It is proposed that a driver must have at least 10 consecutive hours for rest in any period of 24 hours, and at least 24 consecutive hours for rest in every seven days. The regulations also deal with cyclists. It will be an offence to ride a bicycle recklessly or negligently on any road, and, generally, the cyclist will be required to follow all the traffic, road and intersection rules.

Entirely new regulations deal with the means of safeguarding pedestrians. The pedestrian must keep to the footpath as fax- as is practicable. He must wait on the footpath until the tram hrs stopped, if he wishes to board it, and, when descending from the tram, he must make immediately fox- the footpath. The present regulations covering lighting and braking are, in the main, repeated. It is emphasized that the regulations have, by no means, reached their final form, and that they are likely to be substantially revised before they are actually gazetted. They have been circulated to Automobile Associations and other interested bodies and will have to be approved by the recently established National Safety Council before they are brought into force.