DANGER TO DRIVERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 82, 4 October 1938, Page 18

DANGER TO DRIVERS

ITRAMS AT THORNIDON

TURN-OFF NOT EXPECTED

The danger to motorists (through trams turning into the old Tihorndon station site from Thorndon Quay was commented on at last night's meeting of the executive of the Automobile Association (Wellington). Mr. E. A. Batt presided. The executive adopted a reporjt" from its roads committee which drewi attention to the danger. The report lgointed out that in view of the demolition of j the old Thorndon station the tmotor-j ing public did not expect trcims to I turn off at this point, and it was funder- J stood that there had been '■ <j>ne or two cases where accidents fciatl been narrowly averted. The roada; cjbmmit-( tee suggested that representations be I made to the City Council tljiab trams j be not diverted into this aree| itn view of the possible danger of accitiejnt. The roads committee was cqwjcerned with reports received from pa1 tools regarding the extent to which - traffic generally was driving on this centre of roadways, thus failing to I'keep to; the left." The reports showed; that this tendency to drive in the centre of the road did not apply to country roads only, but to city streets as i,vell. .So far as country roads were concerned failure to keep to the left i.'«brmed a distinct danger and was knourn to be the cause of many accidents, while in city streets not only did tho risk of accident exist, but in addition ;(ts traffic was precluded from overtaking, on the left, a large amount of available city street width was wasted, andj in addition a great amount of undup congestion was caused. With traffic, again on the increase, and with the ; still further increase which would thke place during the v summer months, sthe roads committee made an appeal to motorists generally to make a more stnicft observance of the first rule of the l"<Dad with a view to eliminating the gkeat danger of accidents, and also witfhi a view to making greater use of available Street widths. The committee considered a» circular letter sent out by the Main Ef^ghways Board advising that provisions be made for placing double centre lines on portions of road considered to be particularly dangerous. The circular, stated that the Safety Council had adopted a recommendation of ; one of its sub-committees in favour «t>f such double lines as being in the najture of an added safeguard. It is not pipoposed to introduce a regulation in re;£ard to the placing of double centre l|nes in the meantime, but as the linefe were placed, it was desired that mjotorists would understand that where they had been put down it was not permissible to overtake another vehicle, , The roads committee had Ibjefore it a letter from the Commissioner of Transport seeking the association's opinion in regard to a proposal to impose a spe6d restriction of JSO m.p.h. at Paremata from a point 3,0 chains south of the Post Office to a. point 8 chains beyond the golf club Jiouse 6n the Pahautanui side of Golden Gate. The committee favoured th«j restriction of speed in this area, but only as far north as the tennis court, a few hundred yards beyond the Ibottom of the hill at Golden Gate. Tho committee was of the opinion that considering the visibility from th c tennis court northwards, restriction was unnecessary, and in any case was not the amount of local atjijd pedestrian traffic on this short sUction as would justify limiting the ;epeed of motor vehicles. SEALING OF ROAD., Advice had been received itrom the City Engineer that the short', section of unsealed road on the rise ijiorth of Khandallah was to be sealed in the next few weeks. This was ;aj matter on which representation was made to the council following the lattf; meeting, and the steps which were to be taken to seal the road would Jay the dust which, with the fine \ feather, was causing visibility to be considerably obscured. Following last meeting and in conjunction with representatives of the City Council, the Minister of Lands was interviewed regarding a clause in the Lands and Other Reserves Disposal Bill giving power to tike City Council to establish a camp on the Town Belt. The clause was included in the Lands and Other Reserves Disposal Bill and the legal difficulties had thus been disposed of. The roads committee understood that thje question of preparation of plans tfor the camp site and delineation of me area which was to be used was in th|2 hands of the City Engineer. The finance committee reported that subscriptions collected during Sieptember, £2918 ss, were a recoml. The figure in 1937-38 was £2432 ss. j A total of 115 resignations were recorrfmended for acceptance. New members elected at the meeting totalled 3qi. The . financial membership was reported as over 9000. The service officers reported having enrolled 256 new members aad given assistance in 59 cases. j