PILLION-RIDING ON MOTORCYCLES

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2725, 21 March 1916, Page 6

PILLION-RIDING ON MOTORCYCLES

DANGEROUS PRACTICE TO BE STOPPED. Use is second nature. When a couple of years or more ago we were treated W the first view of a motor-cycle carrying a second passenger seated on the parcel-carrier behind the driver, it was considered a rather hair-raising sight, particularly as tlie double burden arid risk appeared, to have no restraint on the speeds'travelled. As time has advanced, _ the sight of a second person pillion-riding is quite a common one. Young girls and . even old ones trust their lives implicitly to motor-cycle riders,_ and if the truth were known some interesting experiences could be related of accidents and "hairbreadth 'scapes by flood and' field." Tho practice is considered a highly, dangerous one, as the motor-cycle is built and balanced only for one person (except, of course, when equipped with a sidecar), and the weight of a second party over the rear wheel must be a big extra strain on the tire and mechanism.

It will interest motor-cycle owners to learn that the City Council's By-laws Committee intends to add a regulation to our motor by-laws prohibiting pillionriding on account of the danger, to life involved. The practice is one that is prohibited in Christchurch, whose bylaws state:

"No person driving a motor-cycle or motor vehicle of any description within the oity shall allow any person or persons to ride upon any jiart of such vehicle other than the part provided for the accommodation of persona intending to be carried' by such vehicle." It is also the intention of the City Counoil to tako action with regard to those people who ■ make a practice of leaving their cars unattended in a public place. Instances have been brought under the notice of tho committee concerned where car-owners have left their cars standing on a public thoroughfare at times for hours, and sometimes on the wrong side of the street. In Auckland the only person privileged so to act is the medical man, who is permitted to leave his car unattended for an hour. This provision would probably also be extended to the medical fraternity of Wellington, but others are to be dealt with in the interests of traffic generally. .