MODERN MOTORING.

Waipawa Mail, Volume L, Issue 105, 29 May 1929, Page 4

MODERN MOTORING.

♦ : ♦ HINTS BY THE WAY. J ♦ *

HEAVY TRAFFIC FEES. WHO WILL PAY THE TAX? DEFENCE FOR PRIVATE CAR OWNERS. SUGGESTED PETITION. (By H J. Butcher, in the Auckland “Star”). For some considerable time there has been an agitation by the heavy traffic owners to have their heavy traffic fees, which amounted to approximately £250,000 last year (and are increasing annually), reduced or removed. The Master Carriers’ Association have been quietly but actively working towards this end for some considerable time.

petition will be launched and signed by every private owner in New Zealand. DRIVING SPEED. COMFORT AND ECONOMY. With the speed and possibilties of the modem car motorists are often given to exaggerating the average they maintain, and if they notice the speedometer touches 50-55 miles an hour short intervals it is imagined that the average speed , will be about 40 miles per hour. As a matter of fact, such an average can only be maintained by a sports ear of high performance, driven by a person of more than average skill. When using a small touring ear of the 12 h.p. class regularly, the greatest amount of comfort will be secured if an average speed of 20-25 m.p.h. is maintained, which means that the driver will be able to indulge in speeds up to 35-40 m.p.h. for fairly long stretches on the open road. It. must, be remembered, however, that, even with cars capable of much higher speeds than those mentioned, a considerable amount of physical fatigue will probably be experienced if fast travelling is indulged in for long distances. Even in cases where physical fatigue may not be very great when driving an easily handled car at relatively high speeds, there is the mental and nervous strain occasioned by the continual necessity for keeping on the alert, which is far more tiring than mere muscular exertion. Therefore, the person who is driving for pleasure will be wise to refrain from travelling “all out” except, perhaps, now and then by way of a little variation from ordinary touring speed.

A lot is heard about the heavy traffic owner having to pay £75 per annum for each vehicle, but there are only approximately 350 vehicles in the whole of New Zealand that are taxed at that figure, the remaining 24,650 being taxed at various lower rates according to weight. The average of the total only amounts to £lO per annum, which is not a very high figure to pay for the wear and tear on the roads'for which they are responsible. If the heavy traffic owners should be successful in obtaining their object, this £250,000 will have to be found by some other tax-payer, and the only person who could be looked upon to make up the deficiency is the private motor car owner, and the only way to collect the money would be through the petrol tax, and, unless our roads are to deteriorate to the extent of a quarter of-a million pounds or more a year, the petrol tax will have to be increased. The heavy traffic owner naturally will say that he will have to pay the increased petrol tax. This, is quite true, but as the private owner consumes at the very lowest estimate, not less than 75 per cent, of the total benzine used in New Zealand, it is obvious that 75 pei» cent, of the increased tax will have to be paid by the private owner. It is believed that this is one of the worst instances ever known in New Zealand of one body of taxpayers attempting to pass their fair and just tax on to a section of the community who under no circumstances whatever should be called upon to pay. It has long been recognised by all the local bodies, Highways Board, and the Public Works Department, that the heavy traffic is mainly responsible for the damage done to and the very heavy maintenance required on our roads. The heavy traffic fees only pay a small proportion of the cost to repair the damage that they are responsible for. THE AVERAGE. As the average fee paid annually by a lorry owner is only £lO, the public will certainly not receive the benefit of the reduction in the decreased cost of carrying goods. The saving would go into the pocket of the lorry owner. As the present regulations allow four-wheel lorries a maximum loaded weight of 10 tons and if fitted with six wheels, 15 tons, to use our main highways, these highways have to be designed and constructed to carry this weight, although there are only about 350 of them in the countiy. This naturally requires a higher standard and more expensive road to. be built than if the maximum was only six tons. Most of this extra expenditure comes out of the pocket of the private owner. The more our main highways are improved with the private owners’ money, more and more heavy lorries will be carrying goods over these roads, and more money will our railways he losing every year, by being deprived of their best paying lines of freight and passenger traffic.

Another thing to be remembered in connection with travelling fast is that speed has to be paid for in some form or another. By keeping on for mile after mile with the accelerator pedal pressed hard down, there will be marked increase in petrol consumption, and also a marked increase in tyre wear. ROAD BUILDING. AN ECONOMIC ASPECT. Every day highways are becoming a more and more important element in the national transportation system of every country. In days gone by the simplest and crudest forms of road building dealt adequately with the transportation needs. To-day the engineer has to provide efficient roads at a rate that was considered impossible a generation ago. Over and above that he must provide cheap roads such as earth roads, that can be changed to better type surfaces with a minimum of expenditure as the need arises. In other words the system must proride for progressive construction, it must be so designed that all work done can be utilised in the new work to be undertaken no matter how long that may be postponed. To quote an American authority: “A highway may be graded and drained to meet the needs of a small rural traffic; surfaced first as a gravel road; then topped with a course of bituminous macadam; scarified, prepared as a base and surfaced with some type of bituminous concrete; and finally reconditioned as a duplex road with two concrete sections having a bituminous centre, or as a heavy pavement with bituminous shoulders. But each step must be so ordered as to make it develop as much as possible of the value remaining in the preceding one. In this way and in this way only can a highway system be economically handled under (lie tremendous and increasing demand of modern traffic.” THE SPARE WHEEL. CHANGE ESSENTIAL FOR LIFE OF TYRE. Tyres are so good nowadays that a new car will often run 5000 miles or more without a puncture. Meanwhile the spare wheel leads a life of complete indolence. When the first puncture occurs the spare wheel starts life, the damaged tyre is duly mended and takes a well-earned rest. But to obtain the full mileage from a set of tyres it is obvious that all five must do the same amount of work, and the spare that only starts life at 6000 miles or more has a lot of leeway to make up. It is a good plan to do a little changing around every 1000 miles or so. Pnt the spare wheel on the offside back wheel, for example, and give that tyre a rest. After another 1000 miles, change over with the near back tyre, then the off front, and in turn the near -front. To avoid getting confused as to which wheel is which, it is a good plan to enter up the cover numbers in a hook, so that one can tel) at a glance how far each cover has gone.

On the Auckland to Hamilton road we see the number of lorries and buses increasing every month, and one dreads to think what chance the private owner will have to take a pleasure drive over this road when the re-formation is completed in about two years’ time. I am afraid if ho is looking*fur a comfortable drive he will have to use the by-ways Ihe same as they do in England, and leave the main highway to the lorries, buses and service ears. To combat the threatened increase in the petrol tax, it would be a good suggestion to open a public petition to be presented to the Government protesting against any reduction. in the heavy traffic fees, and if all the private owners could be induced to sign a petition, I do not think that any Government would dare to act against the wishes of all the private eai owners in New Zealand. The Now Zealand Transport Commission, just created, has ten meiiibeis, and out of-these the private owner has only two representatives, who I am afraid will have a very hard tight unless they have the very strong and visible support of all private car owners. It is hoped that' a strong