WARNING TO CYCLISTS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 26, 9 March 1942, Page 5

WARNING TO CYCLISTS

REFLECTORS AND LAMPS NECESSARY ACTION IN THE NEAR FUTURE The local Traffic Inspector has requested the BEACON to give warning to cyclists that in future steps must be taken to comply with the regulations covering the use o( bicycles jn and about the Borough, or action will be taken to enforce them. Whakatane has never had so many bicycles on the road as at present. There are bund reds who in the ordinary course of events would be using cars, but who have now taken to the friendly 'push-bike' as a means of travel. It is thought that some of these new riders may not have become conversant with the regulations Avhich require the rear mud guard to. be painted with a Avhite panel, that a reflector be prominently attached, and tliat a regulation light be employed in front. Torches held in the hand, are ruled as illegal. Children the Main Culprits' Most of the breaches are committed b.y children, who literally swarm the roads on their machines with little or no regard for the rules of tafl'ic control or anything else. Many of them double bank, which is also considered illegal, but which has been tolerated to a certain extent owing to the restricted use of cars, and the bicyclc becoming the only means of transport for so many. However, with the benzine restrictions now being relaxed and the motor vehicles coming back into service it is necessary to take stricter measures of control. Dangers of the Black-out With the nights drawing in and the 'black-out' adding to the danger of the use of unlightcd bicycles, the authorities have decided to take rigid measures of dealing with the most 'flagrant culprits. A glaring case was cited of a woman, doublebanking a child who cycled into town last Friday without a light or Tcflector. Beside her upon a juveniles machine was a small girl equally unprotected. It was to protect such people against the folly of . their own neglect that stricter measures were to be employed.