SAFETY ALWAYS.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 19150, 5 November 1927, Page 10

SAFETY ALWAYS.

What Co-operation Can Accomplish. BETTER ROADS AND BETTER DRIVERS. Shall There Be An Intelligence Test ? (Specially Written for "The Press.") Most of us, a f&y years ago, heard enough and to spare of the phrase "making the world safe for democracy." A witty diplomat, having regard to the unsettled state things generally prevalent in industrial circles round about that time, expressed the view that another very important \ problem was to make democracy safe for the world! \ Two difficult tasks confront the local-governing authorities and the motoring organisations of New Zealand at the present time:— 1. To make the roads of the Dominion safe for "niotocracy"; and 2. To make "rnotocracy" safe for the roads of the Dominion. UNIONS' CAMPAIGN. I do not propose to anticipate matters by discussing in detail the proposals incorporated in the Motor Unions' Traffic Safety Campaign; suffice it to say that, judging by the amount of hard thinking that is being put into it by the responsible committees, something really valuable should eventually be evolved, and it will then rest with the Government to decide whether the scheme shall be given a trial or not.

As to the first point mentioned above, it will, I think, be freely admitted that our roads to-day are much safer for motor traffic than they were a few years ago. Many narrow places have been widened; many sharp corners lopped off; many grades improved; many treacherous creeks bridged; many warning signs erected. The Main Highways Board, the County Councils, and the Automobile Associations have all contributed to this very necessary work, and although much yet remains to be done, enough has already been accomplished to form an excellent groundwork.

Of course, some portions of the country have fared better than others. "Money makes the mare go" (provided, perhaps, there is not too much on!) and money equally makes the graders grind and the gravel spread—the more money (Highways giants or country rates, or both), the more work done; the less money (sources the same), the less work, except patchwork, which, after all, is merely playing with the job. Whether the Highways Board should be given the power to initiate necessary works in those counties where the Councils are notoriously shirking their responsibilities, and whether, in the case.of roads running through unproductive, mountainous country, the whole burden should be borne bv the Board, are debatable questions; but the motorist naturally, and quite rightly, wants to know where the various taxation monevs he pays to provide road-work funds have disappeared to. Bv dint of much hoping, believing—and nayinp—the motorist of to-day who lives to "a ritie old age" .may yet see in material form the highways of his dreams. Let us hope that before that time arrives he will not have had his automobus taxed right awav! (I understand you are holding a Motor Olympia in Christchurch just now, and ' I don't want to damp anybody's enthusiasm.)

THE HUMAN ELEMENT,

Regarding my second point, it is governed by the human element, and human irresponsibility is surely at its highest (or is it its lowest?) pitch when certain people, supplied by careless inspectors or irresponsible clerks with licenses to drive, sit in behind the steering wheel of a car. I. firmly believe that, before a person is allowed even to learn to drive, he or she should be subjected to an intelligence test—and not too superficial a one, either. The fool who thinks there is certain to be nobody round the next • corner; who believes that a ton or so of motor-car going at forty miles an hour can be pulled up dead (it is some- j times a total loss after the process of trying, certainly); ■ who imagines that whisky and dare-devil tricks do not go hand-in-hand; who flatters himself that everybody whom he encounters in his headlong flight will (or can) get out of his way—idiots of this nature had much better remain pedestrians all their lives, and then the police can more easily keep a watchful eye on them. , All the four-wheel brakes in the world, with red rear reflectors, mirrors, hand-signalling apparatuses, and the awful examples of other fellows' experiences as related in the Magistrate's Courts thrown in, will,never make motorists out of some men. It is just as well to admit this fact, and the man who could devise ways and means of "smelling out" the potential speed fiends, corner-cutters, et hoc omne generis would be doing a real service to the community at large. .

MOTORISTS GENERALLY LAW-RESPECTING. When all is said and done, however, everyone who is not hopelessly biased will concede that the motor-maniac forms a very small proportion of New Zealand's car drivers, and that, taken as a whole, we are a pretty sane, safety-first, law-respecting section of the public. Unfortunately, it is by the exceptions that we are judged, and die-hard horse-and-cart local-body members are wont to protest loud and long against any employment of rate moneys in the betterment of road conditions for the benefit of "them motor fiends." But apart from selfish considerations such as the conversion of the apparently inconvertible to Twentieth Century ways of thought, there is the paramount consideration of the safety of other users of the roads, and. in this every motorist has imposed on him the plain duty of constituting himself his brother's keeper, and exerting his utmost efforts to ensure that, side by side with the steady increase in the number of motors using the thoroughfares, there shall be as steady a decrease in the number of accidents in which motors "are involved. By these means we shall have made "motocracy" safe for the roads; the obligation to make the roads safe for "motocracy" rests in other hands. R.i P. FURNESS, President, Marlborough Automobile Association.