MORE UNIFORMITY AIMED AT IN WORLD’S MOTORING

Wanganui Chronicle, 8 November 1949, Page 6

MORE UNIFORMITY AIMED AT IN WORLD’S MOTORING

(By John Talbot, a Reuter Correspondent in Geneva). Greater uniformity among the motor vehicles of the various countries of the world is likely to result from the new international convention on road traffic and protocol on road signs and signals. The convention provided for the adoption by signatory countries of common standards of lighting, braking, direction indicators, steering mechanism, horns, reversing devices exhaust silencers and tyres. Drawn up by the United Nations Conference on Road and Motor Transport which has been meeting here, the convention has already been signed by 19 of the 22 countries which sent representatives to the conference. They include Great Britain, the United States, India, Sweden, the Union of South Africa, Norway and the Netherlands. It consists of the rules and regulations covering all aspects of international road transport, including the technical to which roads and motor vehicles must conform, the basic rules of the road, registration numbers and distinguished signs. The new convention is designed to replace the existing conventions on motor traffic and road traffic, which were signed in Paris in 1926. It sets out in detail the maximum sizes and weights of various categories of vehicles which will be permitted on those roads specifically designated by the contracting states for use as international highways. No similar provisions have ever before been written into an international convention on road traffic. Among the obstacles to the free flow of international road traffic which the new convention overcomes is the former lack of uniformity in the rules of the road and the lack of uniformity in the competence of drivers and in the technical conditions of foreign vehicles allowed to travel on foreign roads. One achievement of the convention is that it gives assurance to motorists that, if their vehicle fulfils the convention, no contracting- state will refuse the admission of their car on technical grounds. * A spokesman for the United Nations Road Commission, stated that manufacturers of motor vehicles are likely to produce vehicles which conform to the standards of the convention so as to make them suitable for international traffic. It applies to the equipment of new motor vehicles with the special kinds of lighting stipulated in the annex. An illustration of this is that while in certain countries only one headlight is used at night when passing another car, under the convention the international standard requires that both headlights remain alight, but that both must be suitably dimmed. It was decided that there should be two different systems of road signs—the European and the American. At one stage in the conference, it had been intended to include the regulations relating to road signs and signals as an annex to the conference but this presented certain difficulties in view of the basic differences existing between the system commonly used on the American Continent and that in u&e in Europe. Not only are the shape and colouring of the American signs different but also far greater emphasis is placed on written warnings and instructions. In Europe, the written warnings is reduced to a minimum for reasons of language and the emphasis is placed on the pictorial warning.

Convention decided merely to have a protocol for the time and to consider, after the passage of a few years, whether it would be possible to widen its application. The system finally incorporated is aimed at bringing about, the use of the same colours and shapes in different countries to represent the same road conditions. All danger signs, for example, are triangular in shape, have a red border and black symbols against a white or yellow background. Signs giving definite instructions have the same colouring, but are circular in shape. Other signs, which are informative, are generally rectangular in shape and the colours used must be such that red never predominates. The signatory powers are: Austria. Belgium, Denmark, Egypt, France, India, Israel, Italy, the Lebanon, Luxembourg. Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Sweden, Switzerland, South Africa, lhe United Kingdom, the United States and Yugoslavia. The, three countries which did not sign were Chile, the Dominican Republic and Bulgaria. The convention and the protocols now go to Lake Success where any other country so wishing may adhere to it.