Highway Lignting Urged in Canada to Cut Accidents

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 123, 26 May 1936, Page 10

Highway Lignting Urged in Canada to Cut Accidents

TORONTO. — .......... v ui a mod- . rate construction programme during . 3<», .extension of the highway snowc.uiing service during winter to pro .oe belter motoring and employment ..uring critical periods, and construction, of a sidewalk with stonedust or other stable material during firstclass highway building were indicated as proposed work by the Department of Highways for this year in a re cent address by T. B. MrQuesten, Minister of - Highways, at the annual din ner here ’.tie m ..i-- Motor League. i’rom the J. L.. . . pu-uic saiety, >ome of the main highways are in nee-1 <i improvement, in particular that from Kingston to Toronto and Toronto t*> Hamilton, from Hamilton to Niagara Falls and from Hamilton to London. These roads in many places are badly graded and drained, and are the most Heavily travelled roads in the Province. Although highway lighting is being studied carefully at the present time, Air McQuesten said he could promise nothing in the way of a programme, due to the high cost. Experiments are being conducted by the department in connection with the findings of the American department of statistics, which noted that JO per cent of all accidents happened at night, although traffic density had lowered 20 per cent. .1* suggested that this seemed to indii ■ i hat highway lighting might re;u< e i he number of accidents. Good manners were stressed by the speaker as the most important point in good driving, with three other essential points, sound construction of roads and [motor cars, with public control by statue, and regulation. The field of control by statue ami legislation is limited, however, as human relations can be only slightly affected by public eoni ;roh Regulations of the truck and bus business in Ontario will not be permitted to get outside the jurisdiction of the Province, he declared, nor will the truck business be permitted to becoqie —as desired by the railways—a “great

r i monopoly created and bulwarked to ex- [ tract from the public the last dollar < that the public can stand.” J