SPEED AND SAFETY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 199, 15 April 1932, Page 2

SPEED AND SAFETY

HIGH MAXIMUM IS BIG SOURCE OF DANGER. Boasting of high average sp,eeds accomplished on the road is an old failing, whether motor cyclist or car driver is coneerned. Little do the boasters realise that the experienced motorist knows that average speed is mainly governed by the risks the driver is prepared to taka. Whether high sueed is safe depends upon the man, tm^machine, and, last but not least, the road conditions. With a suitahle mount it is easy enough^to achieve a high average in the 'early hours of the morning, hut — and this is where the d.anger lies — few who use the roads in the early hours remember that others, too, may be taking risks. One or two narrow 'escapes from crashing owing to straying cattle or from colliding with other vehicles at cross-roads will soon instil common sense into a rider, that is, if he is lucky enough to escape; but is the risk worth while ? A second may be saved here, another there, hut what does it really matter whether the average for a 200-mile run is 40 miles an hour or 45 ? The . difference is negligible compared witli the possibility of languishing as a motor-cye-list on paper for weeks — ^perhaps for months , or even wprse. In the daytime high averages — by which we mean those much in excess of 40 — spell not only risks, but roadhogging, unless conditions are exceptional. Speed with safety is the maximum of the good rider, and those who boast of high averages would do well to consider whether, on the other hand, they are not among those who foster the prejudice which every motor-cyclist who has the interests of the sport at heart is doing his utmost to live down.