THE OPEN ROAD

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 242, 3 January 1928, Page 9

THE OPEN ROAD

AUCKLANDER TOURS THROUGH U.S.A. NO SPEED LIMIT There is very little Mr. F. B. Cadman does not know of the main roads of America. He returned yesterday by the Niagara after a motor tour of 6.600 miles through the United States. IyTK. CADMAN, who is proprietor of . a, garage in Grey’s Avenue, decided to buy a car in America. He found it the most comfortable way of touring the country, and brought the car back with him to Auckland. From Detroit, where he bought the car, Mr. Cadman travelled through Toledo and Cleveland to the Niagara Falls. This is a highway of 500 miles, with a brick surface, the bricks being set into concrete. Mr. Cadman considers that the road, 16 feet wide, is too narrow, and can take only two cars wide. There is no speed limit in Michigan, and everybody “steps on the gas.” At first he found some difficulty in getting accustomed to the left-hand driving, but the traffic helped him a good deal. The road surface all the way from the Falls, through the Cheery Valley to Albany, and down the Hudson River to New York, is splendid. The Bear Mountain Bridge, across the Hudson River, is a very fine structure, 300 feet above the water. CONGESTED TRAFFIC “The traffic in New York is terribly congested,” said Mr. Cadman. “One is allowed to take only the alternate street when turning, and if the street is missed a whole block must be traversed to get back again. It is quicker to walk in many places. The only control is by automatic three-colour lights, which show at regular intervals. When red appears, every one must stop. The best traffic control I saw was in Detroit, also the threecolour system, but it is very efficient, and the drivers are expert. I saw very few accidents.” Mr. Cadman said that on the run from New York to Washington he saw several stretches of 100 in length where the concrete road had broken up, and had been repaired. The concrete had been tco

thin, and the cracks were about two feet square. The concrete which is now being put down on the American roads is the same as that which is being put down in Auckland.

From Washington Mr. Cadman took the open road through Indianapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, and through to Los Angeles. After leaving the concrete at Kansas City he came on the famous

‘“dirt” road, which is made by heaping the earth from the prairie to a height of some inches above the surrounding country. “The road is like a billiard table,” he said. “We covered 100 m.'.les in two and a-quarter hours, and it takes some doing to keep that speed up.” Mr. Cadman said that through the whole of the tour he got his windscreen wet only twice. The weather was perfect most of the time. The tour ended on the Californian coast, and the car was then shipped from San Francisco to Honolulu, where he and his family caught the Niagara for Auckland.