WHITE MUDGUARDS AGAIN

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 83, 5 October 1931, Page 6

WHITE MUDGUARDS AGAIN

(Tot the Editor.) Sir,—ln the annual report of the Wellington Automobile Club, as summarised in Friday's "Post,* appean the following: White Mudguard Bylaw.—An important bylaw which the City Council agreed to adopt as a' result of .representation from the club is that requiring white' mudguards, on bicycle*. Members are aware of the danger of bicycles on roads, particularly at night time, and the difficulty very often of seeing cyclista- on black roads. This regulation is now being fairly generally adopted through-1 out the Dominion. ' In view of the contents of the ennual report of the Transport Department, and the- analysis of the principal causes of motoring accidents published by the Wellington Automobile Club itself ;n< Tuesday's "Post," the above statement U, to say the least of it, astonishing. • In the club's analysis, not a word is said about' bicycles, but a great deal of safety first information is given £or the motorist, even to the extent of publishing the most elementary rule of >the road, "Keep to the left." ' The motoring community "must surely be in a bad way when the Automobile Club finds it necessary to - say that! Turning to the annual report of the Transport Department, presented to Parliament in July last, we find that motor vehicles were involved in 22V accidents for the year ending 31st March, 1931, and responsible for 247 deaths! Of the total of 221 accidents, bicycles were specifically mentioned in only seven cases —a little over 3 per cent. It is, therefore, with a feeling of particular expectancy that I invite the Wellington Automobile Club to explain just exactly why bicycles are dangerous i on roads, and why cyclists are so much more invisible at night time than pedestrians. When explaining, the club will no doubt bear in mind.that it has itself decreed (vide "Evening Post," 29th September) that "all road users have an equal right to the road." That,' of course, includes pedestrians. , ..' - With regard to white mudguards, and the statement that "this regulation is now being fairly generally 'adopted throughout tbe Dominion," it would -teem that in those places where this bylaw allegedly exists the number of, bicycles without white mudguard! is greater than the number with them. At that shrewd observer, Mr. L. D. Austin, remarks, the report of the Wellington Automobile Club is remarkable chiefly for what has been left out than for what has been put in.— I am, etc, ALFRED E. MILNE, Hon. 'Secretary. Cyclists' Touring Club.