CITY TAXI-DRIVERS

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1388, 14 March 1912, Page 6

CITY TAXI-DRIVERS

»_ . . AND THE SPEED LIMIT* A PROTEST, THE NEW MOTOR BY-LAW-, "Wo don't think if a a fair thing for ;hcso non-export city councillors to legislate on , what they 'know nothing nbout, ■and. so play ducks .and drakes with our living," was the comment expressed on. tho new motor by-law lay a taxi-driver ■ on one of tho city stands to a Dominion ■Toporter yesterday. ,' l)o you ; say Hint tho 20 miles' speed limit is too high? tho reporter asked him.- . ■ "Well, it's the 'speed limit fixed for : London, and I think it must surely bo • blow enough for Wellington," ho replied. •"In real fact tho speed is far too slow. 'Most peoplo who don't drivo curs think twenty miles an hour is very fast, but it is really an easy speed for a motor:car. Look at that car passing now," ho said, indicating a passing automobile, "it } is travelling at 12 or It miles an hour 'and it look.? to be going quite slow. Twenty miles an hour is not much faster. 1 ' Speed Limit Rule Useless, "Tho fixing of a speed limit," he went on, "U not tho way to regulate motor ."traffic; wh.it is required is something moro elastic. Although tho limit is 20 loiles per hour in London, they would hang you if you tried to drive that speed in certain streets at certain hours. 'So it should be here. It might be dan--1 gorous on occasion to drivo along Manners Street or Willis Street at 20 miles an hour, but in tho early morning, it would ho safe to drive at 30 miles an hour, and on the suburban roads it would bo safe to run at SO or JO nules an hour at any time. The sanio .'/iplies to ;the- speed limit of six miles p'er hour '■Toiind corners. It would be dangerous to .'drive round tho corner of Lambton. Quay arid , -Willis Street during the busy hours of tho day nt moro than three miles an hour, and none of us ever, attempt it, but .on Sunday morning, say, it would bo perfectly safe to tako tho corner at 12 miles an hour. But I don't mind the limit on corners. I think all corners should be turned at a slow speed; four .miles an hour is tjuito fast enough. The speed of eight miles an hour past intersections in not unreasonable, but here again, tho restriction is unnecessary. Wo could, safely drive three times as fast as that over certain intersections at certain times', and at busy times wo would not dare to drivo at more than half that speed. "The whole regulation is useless," said the speaker. "In other motoring countries they have tried these limits in order to regulate, motor-car but the regulations' aro all dead how. They all find them, unworkable, and tho test they rely on is'the common, law test—whether the Fpccd :is dangerous to tho public or not. In France, for instance, they have ho other test than this. It will come to tho same thing here in tho end." To.Brooklyn for Three Shillings, What about the new scale of fares ? "Of., course,"'.replied the-.speaker,. "they iro absurd in this town, and we can't iun to .them. If they insist on taximeters and tho new rates, wo shall all bo driven off . the road. For instance, if a man wants to :gb to Brooklyn now it costs him half a sovereign. By tho taximeter tho faro would bo ,Is., aiid we simply can't afford to run to Brooklyn for 3s. If I wanted to' go to Brooklyn on a private errand it Would.cost mo'more than 3s. to get there. A shilling a. mile oh th<* flat will pay us well eifrugh, for we'can run for about Bd. or M.,!bnt then they have given tho' public the option of paying by time. Tho Sates won't pay us nt all, and tho result will be that wo will pull into the garages and advertise. Theso short runs on the streets don't pay us anyhow, but they fill iii timo and oily us a tin of petrol now and then. I would not pull off tho stand (for a shilling run, and. two shilling fares aren't worth while unless to keep w> a connection. Wo mako most of our money by long trips outside tho city boundaries, and the city councillors forgot that to get over their scale we havo only to drive our fare to the city boundary and insist upon ' a , new arrangement. Our rates now aro not excessive, anyway. Wo will run a man out toVUpper, -Hutt,., 20 miles, 'and back for a couple of pounds, and throw in an hour or so of waiting time out there. "The new time rates," ha continued, "would not amount to so much, but wo ■won't run under them, and tho distance rates would bo so much more that nobodv would pay them. We certainly can t work to this by-law, but I think you will find it will bo dropped, and things will go on as they aro now." The Private Car. Another taxi-car driver who was approached said that as far as the speed, limit imposed by tho council was concerned, he had no cause for complaint. 'As far as the mid-city streets were concerned—Willis Street, Lambtron Quay, Cuba Street, and Manners Street—tho limit of 20 miles an hour was a literal enough provision. .Anyhow, how many could judgo with the eye if■,a.car was going at'"JO or 25 miles an hour. The leverage speed of cars travelling the- streets rnfntioned was, he. thought, under 20 miles an hour, but they opened out a bit where there was a clear run in Jervois Quay, C'ourtenay Place, Adelaide Road, and such streets where it was easy to moke 30 miles an hour, without any Bort of risk. Occasionally,'.the' pace is "cut out" in the city when a man wants to keep ahead of a tram-car in order not to ho blocked at a city stopping place. "Anyhow," ho added, "it's not the taxi drivers who are tho worst offenders as far as speed is concerned. It is the private owners who rush round at excessive speeds, and being less experienced than those who are always at tne game, they find trouble more often." A Hamilton Case. Councillor J. E. Fitzgerald, when seen fly a reporter yesterday, said that a fixed speed was difficult to apply on account of the difference in the size of cars. What might bo "dead slow" for a small car would bo a speed at which a, larger car could not be kept going. Then it was questionable if the traffic- could bo regulated by a by-law. In this connection ho drew attention to a recent decision of Mr. I'. O'B. Loiighnan, delivered at Hamilton last month. The decision was given in the case in which Jl. S. Bates, of the Wnikiito Motor Oarage, was charged with 'having driven his car in oniiof the streets nf Hamilton at a speed exceediiig 8 miles per hour, in contravention of the bv-law. in its report iif the ca>o, "The Motor and Cycle Journal" made the following referenco to the magistrate-'s decision:—"His Worship said ho was quite satisfied that tho bv-law was unreasonable; tho very fact that it was' scarcely over observed - proved this. . . . Taking tho medical profession, wore- the speed to bo restricted to eight miles in a town like Hamilton, it would not be worth while for a doctor to fo to the expense of keeping a motor-par, [o (his Worship) had driven along tho main street several times that day in a motor at eight miles an hour, and found that it was very difficult for a driver to keep going at that sprcd. . . . The upeed limit was unreasonable because a motor-car was not under proper control at eight miles an hour. Therefore, because lie thought; tho by-law unreasonable ho ' would inilict no penalty." The Übiquitous Motor Cycle, Councillor It. Fletcher, in referring to tho by-law, said that he felt very strongly on this question. Councillor Fletcher said that with tho increasing tram traffic, and the increasing number of motor-cars and cycles, the danger to life, was .becoming rt'roator every day, and there was need to properly control it'. Even during tho past couple ox weeks there luid been quite a number of accidents in tho city streets. He regarded motor cycles as the most.serimis danger. Somo of the motor cyclists flew along Lambton Quay, at 30 ov JO miles an hour, without any regard for pedestrians. That might be- all right on fome of tho country roads, but not in the city. He did not claim to bo an expert motor driver, but. he spoko as one who ilvove a car, and ho felt quite convinced that 20 miles an hour was an excessivp (.peed in the more congested parts of the rity, say between Davis Street and the lin-'-in Reserve, bounded by tho Terrace and tho water front. Ho believed that his motion to reduce the speed to 15 miles nn hour in these parts \yould have been carried by a full council, and for that mson ho. intended to again move the amendment when the by-law came up. for confirmation, ~