MOTOR NOTES

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 85, 4 January 1935, Page 14

MOTOR NOTES

Drivers’ Revolt in London WHOLESALE SMASHING OF SIGNS

(By “Headlight.”)

Some courageous “London motorists retaliated in November against one of the latest innovations for the control qf traffic in a manner which must arouse the sympathy of the more rebellious 1 spirits among drivers in other lands. They lost patience with the new signals nicknamed Belisha Beacons which have eben erected to indicate places where pedestrians have special rights in crossing the roads, and smashed them. The beacons are pale-orange globes fixed to the tops of thin, seven-foot poles coloured something like a barber’s pole, and, to the annoyance of the drivers, give the pedestrians the right of way at places where they are erected. They are put at intersections not sufficiently busy’ to warrant the installation of stop-go lights. To get past a Belisha Beacon one must drive at a crawl, permitting instant stops should a pedestrian wish to cross. Air Gunmen. Suddenly in the dead of night motorists in open sports cars began dashing about London on a Belisha Beacon hunt. Passengers with air guns pinged at the orange globes which burst in showers of tinkling glass. When Scotland Yard counted up next morning 26 beacons had been smashed but nobody had been caught. The sniping of the beacons still continues but new ones are being erected fast. The Minister expected to have 20,000 erected by Christmas. Certain Reservations. Mr. C. J. B. Norwood, formerly Mayor of Wellington, who is frequently to be seen behind the ,wheel of his car in Wellington, mentioned the London innovation in an interview on his return from England this week. “Upward of 10,000 yellow beacons are being placed at points where the pedestrian is allowed right-of-way in crossing the streets,” he said. “In the

markings a width of about 6ft. is provided, and the motorist is responsible if an accident occurs within these lines. There are, however, certain reservations. The traffic lights must be in favour of the direction of the crossing, aud the pedestrian is not allowed to linger or to walk deliberately slowly across the street. Such action on the part ; of the pedestrian is punishable by law.” . “Punch” in its Element. | ‘ The Belisha Beacons are named after j Major Hore-Belisha, Minister of Transport, and they and the ordinance forbidding the sounding of horns in certain areas between .11.30 p.m. and 7 a.m. have provided "Punch” with an almost bottomless well of mirth. One cartoonist has dubbed the smug expressions said to be adopted by pedestrians when they are exercising their rights in crossing the road “Belisha faces.” Another, prompted by jail sentences, gives the conversation of two convicts: “What are you in for?” “Forgetting to sound my horn. And you?” “Forgetting not to.” Another cartoon depicted the predicament of a motorist with a cold, whose nose blowing sounded illegal to a London Bobby. Fog Starts Cars Tooting. On November 20, the “News Chronicle” declared: “These two facts were clearly demonstrated in the dense fog which smothered London and the south of England yesterday: (1) Belisha beacons failed utterly because their, yellow globes are unlit. They could not be seen either by pedestrians or motorists. (2) The silence order should not be enforceable in fog. Shortly before midnight the fog began to lift in several districts, but wherever it remained thick motorists felt compelled to hoot. In Soho, hooting was general.” Why Not Wellington? Wellington motorists blow their horns- much too frequently, according to a pedestrian reader of “The Dominion” who called recently to express his appreciation of an article pub- . llshed a few days before, and dealing with the modern problem of city noise. “London has cut out motor horns—why not Wellington?” he asked. “The motor-horns in use nowadays' are both noisy and unmusical. I use the streets of Wellington every day, and have done so for a lifetime, and I have seen it demonstrated over and oyer again, that the unnecessary blowing of a raucous horn, instead of preventing accidents, is actually liable to cause them. You ought to have something done about it.”