"STRATFORD EVENING POST” THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1929. MOTOR TRAFFIC.

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 44, 5 December 1929, Page 4

"STRATFORD EVENING POST” THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1929. MOTOR TRAFFIC.

I’HJH new motor traffic Bill introduced in tlie House of Commons follows fairly closely the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Transport, which issued its report on the control of traffic three months ago. It is significant that the attempt j to restrict the speed of cars to a definite figure in miles per hour is abandoned, and in its place the Bill proposes a more drastic policy in regard to dangerous driving. It is true that the speed of charabancs and lorries is limited to thirty miles an hour, but some rule is essential in this case, because of the size and weight of the vehicles. The commission proposed to make the fine lor conviction for dangerous driving at least £SO for the first offence and £IOO for a second, with the alternative of imprisonment, coupled with the automatic cancellation of the driver's license. As the deaths from road accidents number about 6000 a year and the injuries over 150,000. it is obvious that new measures are imperative. The commission laid stress on the importance of observing road signs and the rule of the road, and suggested minor penalties for breaches in this respect. In regard to drunkenness it suggested that the offence should be defined to permit of the conviction of a driver who, not being ardnally'Tfrnnk, is not able to exercise proper control of his car. tin the vexed question of headlights the commission was strongly in favour of dipping or dimming - an inevitable conclusion in England, where some roads would be rendered highly dangerous by an unending procession of glaring headlights. It is a weakness of our own regulations that they make no real distinction in this matter between country roads and the well-lighted streets of a city. Compulsory third parly insurance lias been included in I the new Bill, and needless to \ say it will meet with universal

approval. A very important provision of the English Hill requires that the applicant for a driving license shall make a declaration of physical fitness. In most countries there, is a growing feeling that some test of eyesight is needed, but no satisfactory rule on this subject has yet been found. The new pro-< posals constitute an enormous i advance on the present condit-' ion of traffic regulation at Home,j but thev will not in themselves r eliminate accidents. What is re-J quired. of course, is the edveat-j ion of'motor drivers themselves, the development of road sense and road courtesy and the development of caution among pedes-

triaus. Laws may make jfoij saferVj. but their chief use is to create a standard of conduct. In addition to that, of course, they impose adequate penalties for breaches of rules and regulations, and in that way they help to eliminate the temperamentally unfit. One very useful recommcudjation of the commission.‘not emboddied in the Bill, is that a full examination should be made of the statistics of road accidents with a view to ascertaining ' the relative importance of '.the various causes. When that is completed it may he_ desirable to modify the provisions of the law, and British experience should be of material assistance to our own Transport Board. Probably controversy will concern itself mainly with the abolition of the sneed limit, but in that respect 'Britain is accepting present conditions because the regulation is seldom observed and rarely enforced—and incidentally fdie is falling into line with Continental eonntries which long since realised the futility of arbitrary restriction.