CITY TRAFFIC.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1945, 31 December 1913, Page 8

CITY TRAFFIC.

PREVALENCE OF SPEEDING.

POLICE CONTROL THE AUTHORITIES' CHIEF DIFFICULTY. [BY PEDESTEIAN.] The traffic in 'tko city streets is now supposed to bo controlled and regulated wholly by tho police, but for various reasons, quite obvious to anyone, tho police havo been ablo to devote a good deal less attention to this duty of late than is perhaps neccssary. Beforo tho polico took over sole control tho traffic was practically unregulated, and breaches of tho rules of the road, and of tho city by-laws wore of hourly occurrenco in the most congested parts of the city, 'l'heso flagrant breaches have certainly been reduced in number, but an observant onlooker may still noto scores of them, In one particular only lias tho polico control brought about a marked improvement —in tho regulation of traffic at the three busiest and most dangerous corners in tho city, the Lambton Quay-Willis Street corner, the Willis Strpet-Mannors Street corner, and the Manners. Street-Cuba Street comer. A' constable is stationed at every tfne of these points, and tho result has been a complete' observance of the rule of tho road by everybody, and reckless driving round these . corners has been entirely stopped. The police have been able, also, to secure a better observance of tho by-law requiring drivers of vohiclcs to pull up'their vehicles behind tramcars, when those trams are stopped in certain of the narrow thoroughfares, instead of tryiug tho risky passage between the car and the sidewalk.

Much Remains to be Done. So much for- tho good tho police have been able to do, but much undoubtedly still remains to be done. It is a fact that a great deal of dangerous speeding is indulged in by drivers of motor vehicles. The answer to such a statement invariably is that a motor vehicle is so completely under tho control of a skilful driver, and can be stopped and turned so Tapidly that it is quite safe for such a vehicle to go at fast speeds oven in traffic. All of which is doubtless true, but it is a fact patent to the most careless observer, that motor drivers not infrequently drive at speeds up to and beyond the margin of safety. It is not to be denied, for instance, that a horse vehicle travelling at twenty miles an hour in fairly open traffic in even a wide street would be' highly dangerous. It mav bo correct to say that a motel travelling at tho fame rate would not he dangerous in the same street; but there is a speed nt which even a motorcar could not travel in any particular street with safety. It is claimed by many that that limit of safe speed, variable, .of-course, as it must be in different thoroughfares, is quite often exceeded. Dashes In Willis Street. Hie most dangerous thoroughfare in nil the city is that section of Willis Street beyond Maimers' Street and Lambton Quay." and in this street motorcars are very often driven at risky speeds. The object of the drivers generally is to avoid being held up by sta-tic-nary trams, at the stop at either end or in the middle of this section of the street. If a motor falls in behind a car tho driver must wait until the car moves on, and ho will probably have to do likewise at the next stop. There is a strong temptation, therefore, for a driver to make a dash to clear a trtim before it reaches a stop, and these dashes are" sometimes very risky. A few evenings a2O an extremely daneerous_ dash of this kind was made by a taxi-driver to pass a tram coming down Willis Street, just as it anproachcd the Lambton Quay corner. It was in the half-light of the evening, and he was driving _ fast close up against tho foot- ■ way, _ with tho exhaust opened to make a noise like a maxim gun. It was a verv_ aggravated qnso of disregard of public safety, but the man escaped tho notice of tho police.

Hands of Potics Stayed. To bring tho perpetrators of such reckless acts before tho Court is no very easy task, and it appears that the police are not altogether to blame for the fact that speeding goes on practically unchecked. The City Council havo fixed tho maximum speed for motors in the City at 20 jniles per hour in certain streets, 15 miles per hour in streets in the busier area of the City, oight miles per hour across street intersections, and four miles per hour round corners. Shortly after the police jrero handed over control of the traffic, traps" were laid in various parts of the City, and tho speed of cars over measured distances wero recorded. Some thirty or forty prosecutions followed, in most_of which convictions wero record- ' Presently, however, a solicitor for one of tho defendants raised the defence tJiat because the City Council had not complied with the clause in tho Motor Regulation Act requiring them to place in suitable positions notice boards indicating the maximum speeds permitted in particular thoroughfares, 110 drivers coultl be convicted under the law defining tho maximum permitted speed. The presiding' magistrate upheld the contention, and an appeal is being made against that! decision. uj a defendant who was convicted is also pending Until those appeals are dealt ivitli, iiio poliec aro virtually debarred- from prosecuting under tlio City council's by-law. No Men to Spare. Other difficulties which the police havo to overcome were referred to by Supermtendciit EllisoUj when approached by the writer. The greatest of all, ho said, was lack of men for tho traffic work, it all the men stationed in the city wero available for ordinary street duty at once there would not bo moro 'than enough to cover all the regular beats. No men would bo left over for traffic supervision. But it never happened that all 1? Incu ,velß available at once. Invariably there wero men 011 sick leave or on holiday leave, and others vero withdrawn from xl lO streets for various special duties. Hecently the strike had disorganised things still further, and now men who had had their annual leave postponed wero being given their overdue holidays. Superintendent Ellison insisted that the pretention of too fast driving required spccial men for this duty alone. An ordinary constable 011 Ins beat could not' pursue a furious driver, and if ho was lucky enough to identify tlio driver or tho car lie could not prove- to the satisfaction of a Court that the speed was excessive, l'ositivo evidenco as to tlio rate of speed could be given only by men who had with stop watches timed cars over measured stretches of road. Before tho police could undertako this duty thoroughly moro men, equipped with, stop watches, would havo to be provided. Certain taxi-drivers, carters, and cabmen, regular users of tlio streets, were also asked to state their opinions nbout the control of traffic. On only one point were all unanimous—that the motor cyclist is the greatest nuisance, and the most reckless speed maniac on the streets. Drivers of horses said-that motors had been responsible for making the streets unsafe. Motor drivers, on tho other hand, blamed liorso drivers for the careless way 111 which certain of them occasionally swung their horses across the road, careless of whether they wero crossing the track of a motor coming behind or not. Tlioy were all agreed, however, that tlio stationing of a policeman at tho dangerous corners had made for greater safety at those corners, and had already prevented many acci-