WHAT IS ROAD SENSE?

Hokitika Guardian, 23 October 1923, Page 1

WHAT IS ROAD SENSE?

(By L. Donaldson in -‘Daily Mail.") The unusually large crop of motor fatalities which has occurred during the past few months has again given rise to the discussion: AA hat is road sense ! To the average person it is an indefinable quality sometimes inherent and sometimes acquired. Its possession may he either or both. It is mainly a matter of instinct; a faculty which tells its possessor what to do and when to do it. It lias been described as a sixth sense. AA’itli that I disagree. Ir, is, in my opinion, a fine sense of judgment acquired by experience and assisted by an inherent cautiousness. The charge has frequently been levied against drivers that they are incapable of making a quick decision, when facing an emergency. In other words, the road sense is undeveloped, for whore this has been acquired there is scarcely any need *<" conscious thought in a sudden crisis. Road sense, then, may be defined as “applied observation.’ One or two *xamples will more clearly define it* meaning. A cloud ol dust above a

hedge may denote the upproaen ot a car round the bend. The tip ol a "'hip above a wall may give warning oi a farm wagon or market cart. _ Litil - things, certainly, hut quite sufficient to forewarn the driver with road setae. The exercise of this faculty in time Lecontes automatic and imposes no strain upon the driver. The habit is acquired slowly. but when once acquired can always he exercised. This subtle appreciation of approaching danger will automatically warn drivers to slow down suddenly for no apparent reason, or to accelerate in Hie same way.

Road sense can be cultivated. Every object on the load should he taken in at a glance and a rapid judgment made of any eventuality. 1" 11 the good driver should see as much with the “tail of his eye” as can he seen straight ahead. Road sense can lie cultivated, lloml sense is a keen appreciation of s|iced. time, and distance ; the ability to determine rapidly how little space his car can occupy when m-edetl ; at what speed lie must travel to overtake a vehicle before oncoming traffic renders the manoeuvre impossible, or nt what space of time he can bring linear to a dead stop. Other points to he considered m developing road sense are the ability io estimate the probable course of a road (lele-'raph poles form a useful gunk-H on,| the relation of the land contour to the road (a road seldom rises deliberately over the crest of a ridge, hut invariably skirts t.hc base) ]u mountainous country “hair-p’u bonds are generally numerous, whim coastal roads arc usually straight. Rivers and canals, moreover, are usually followed by winding, tortuous nighways. < . \ keen appreciation <>i these varmlions will lead to a rapid development of the mad sense, and to a diminution oi road in tali tics.