THE SPEED LIMIT.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 19898, 16 September 1913, Page 2

THE SPEED LIMIT.

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —To-day I noticed the Borough workmen cingaged in affixing to the Town Bridge a notice which reads "Speed Limit four miles per hour." That there should be 1a limit to the speed at which, vehicles travel over the bridge is quite right, and' it is also right that the limit should apply to the Avenue, and other places where the traffic is congested. There should also be a limit placed to the hours during which stock may be driven over the biidge, and pedestrians too should be restricted to the use of the footway, and not be permitted to entangle themselves with the mixed vehicular traffic in the centre. Regulations are good so long as they press equally upon all alike, but in this particular instance it seems to me that a blow is being aimed at the motor cyclist. Four miles per nour is only a walking pace, and to slow down a motor-cycle to that means that the cyclist may as well get off and push. A car being on four wheels may do it ■.vithout the slightest inconvenience, so may the man on the "push bike," but four miles to a motor cycle is much too slow, and much slower than is necessary for safety. There is no one using the roads to-day so likely to suffer from collision sw the motor cyclist, and no one with so .keen a look out for his skin. There lare many times when a short spurt enables a motor cyclist to take advantage of an opening and get out of the way of the other traffic, but the man in the dray looks on and thinks that some reckless riding is being indulged in. May I suggest to "the powers that be" to reconsider that figure four and turn it into a six or a seven. Whiie on the subject of speeds, I read the report of an inquest held in London on the body of a man who had been knocked down by a motor car and killed. The chauffeur who was held blameless was asked if there was -nothing he could have done to save the man's life? He replied "Yes, sir! If I could have gone sixty miles an hour for a second and a half I'd have missed him." So it is with the motor cyclist, given m, clear, or nearly clear bridge, to tie a motor cyclist down to so ridiculous a speed' is to delay him, in many instances, long enough to entangle him in traffic which he otherwise would meet after leaving the bridge. Thanking you in anticipation. I am, etc.,

MOTORCYCLE