NARROW STREETS

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 48, 20 November 1926, Page 8

NARROW STREETS

SAFEST FOR MOTOR TRAFFIC

At the Kent Terrace inquiry, before Air. E. Page, S.AL, yesterday, Air. L. Hunt asked one witness (Sub-Inspector P. Harvey, of the. police) whether he agreed with the late Air. W. H. Alorton (formerly city engineer) that wider streets meant increased danger in trafMr. J. O’Shea (city solicitor) : You don’t suggest that? Mr. Hunt: Mr. Morton did.

Not only did Air. Alorton report in that direction, but it is said to have been proved bv accident statistics taken all over the 'United States, that the wider the streets the greater the number of accidents, simply because wide streets mean more room for motorists to drive in, and, psychologically, the greater the area at the disposal of a motorist the less concentrated is he on his wheel. Then, again, where there are narrow streets people can cross them in two or three seconds, but the passage of a wide street is quite a journey, during which anything may occur. One of the two deaths referred to at the inquiry yesterday was caused by an accident opposite the De Luxe Theatre, where tiie street is one of the widest in the whole of Wellington. When Air. L. ATcKenz.ie (a former citv councillor) visited Norfolk (Virginia) this vear, he was surprised to find the streets of the old town every bit as narrow as those of Wellington, and vet thev appeared to be carrying double the motor traffic. In the course of a chat with the city officials, Air McKenzie remarked on the narrowness of the streets, and how conducive such cramped conditions must be to accidents in this motor age. The officials smiled, for, as a matter of hard fact, Norfolk, with the narrowest streets of any city in the States, is said to be statistically the safest from an accident viewpoint. So that the late Mr Morton only quoted from world experience when he mentioned that wide .streets meant a greater number of accidents.