UNIFORM SYMBOLS FOR ROAD SIGNALS AND SIGNS WANTED

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 52, 17 October 1949, Page 7

UNIFORM SYMBOLS FOR ROAD SIGNALS AND SIGNS WANTED

Greater uniformity among the motor vehicles of the world is likely to result from the new international convention on road traffic and protocol on road signs and signals. The convention provides for the adoption by signatory countries of common standards for 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, the Convention has already been signed by 19 of the 22 countries which sent representatives. It consists of the rules and regulations coverinf all aspects of international road transport, including the technical specifications to which roads and motor vehicles must conform, the basic rules of the road, registration numbers and distinguishing signs. Convention of 1926 Replaced The new convention is designed to replace the existing conventions on motor 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 as international highwayc. No similar provisions have ever before been written into an international convention on road traffic. Among the obstacles to the free flow of road traffic which the new 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 conditions laid down in the convention, no contracting State will refuse the admission of their cars on technical grounds.