DOMINION ROAD SIGNS

Waikato Independent, Volume XLIV, Issue 6100, 10 September 1947, Page 4

DOMINION ROAD SIGNS

AUSTRALIAN AUTHORITY IMPRESSED ADVANTAGE OF STANDARDISATION •. Road signs in New Zealand are models of clarity—they are not bettered anywhere in the world. This is the opinion of Mr Leon Trout, president of the Australian Automobile Association, who is at present visiting New Zealand. He said that the black and yellow sign posting throughout the Dominion was 10 years ahead of that in Australia—night signs on New Zealand roads were superior to those in Britain and the United States. Much of their excellence, he said lay in, the fact that they were standardised. Road signs in the Commonwealth varied from State to State and this lack of uniformity often puzzled motorists on long journeysThe New Zealand signs were, in addition, fully informative and ideally placed. The bare mention of “danger’’ on some Australian signs didn’t convey much and often caused too little or too much apprehension. Either excess could lead to accidents.

Australia, said Mr Trout, was much concerned about its road fatalitv rate, which was the second highest in the world. From 1930 to 1946, 346,000 people had been killed or seriously injured in traffic accidents. To offset this highway menace, the Australian Automobile Association had this vear asked the Federal Government for £IOO,OOO out of road taxes to conduct road safety campaigns. Mr Trout Isaid that any safety campaign should co-ordinate remedial measures for road defects and the general education of road users. The majority of city streets in both Australia and New Zealand were not wide enough. A system of decentralised parking was the immediate answer to street traffic congestion, but future town planning would have to cater for wider thoroughfares. The visitor was also impressed by New Zealand sites for caravans. He thought that before long there would be a large volume of trans-Tasman tourist traffic which would undertake fishing expeditions in the Dominion by caravan.