ROAD LAW

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 6, 29 March 1927, Page 11

ROAD LAW

A SUGGESTED ACTIVITY POINTS ON THE SPEED TRAP Road law in all its complications is at present concerning every country. The main features of any legislation in this connection should be concerned with speed limits, and driving, or walking to the common danger. From the motorist’s point of view much centres round speed limits. Few motorists—and fewer non-motorists—unless they have deliberately driven at 20 miles an hour over several miles, realise how slow this is; as a matter of fact 40 miles an hour after many miles of it seems merely slipping along. I recently carried a non-motorist’s passenger from Christchurch to Dunedin. After leaving Ashburton we proceeded at an average of 39 to 42 m.p.h. for nearly 100 miles. The passenger was at first obviously nervous. The car incidentally was a 10.8 horse-power model with high pressure tyres. After fifty miles or so my passenger suddenly remarked:— “Well, you hear a lot about 40 miles an hour being a dangerous pace, but we seem to be going slowly.” Auckland, Dunedin and a few other centres, as well as a number of county authorities, place no restriction on speed, the onus being on the driver to drive in a manner not dangerous to anyone else. Where there are speed limits the very authorities who make them break them every time they travel in a car. This applies especially in the small towns where they have such impossible speeds as 10 or 12 miles an hour and 4 or 6 miles an hour round corners. It has been contended that the abolition of speed limits has the natural result of dangerous speeds and disastrous results, but that this is a mistaken idea has been clearly demonstrated. Traffic now moves regardless of speed limits, and will continue to do so. The majority of motorists do not drive fast continuously. The younger generatio- is growing up motor-wise, and is r trying to acquire motorsense ir .ddle age. For this reason we may pe that the standard of driving wih .mprove. In the meantime, however, the only possible solution is to rigorously deal with excessive speeds on crowded roads, cutting in, and passing on corners and generally with drivers who have a selfish disregard for the safety and comfort of others. A standard maximum speed should be in force in townships—instead of the present hopeless jumble of speeds ranging from eight to twenty miles an hour —and, when occasion demands, special action should be taken to regulate traffic by visible police or inspectors. SPEED TRAPS Having mentioned the matter of visible police or traffic inspectors, let me voice a personal opinion that the so-called speed traps, so familiar nearly all over the Dominion when large numbers of motorists travel to any particular engagement, are iniquitious, and that those who conduct them fail in their duty. Assume that Exebus Blank is one of that poor specimen of driver who indulges in furious and dangerous driving, and that he is indulging in a line of race traffic in the clever (?) tactics of this kindred. The speed trap may duly number him up and mulch him financially, but can the authority running the “trap” justify itself if Exebus Blank, half a mile further on, kills someone. Emphatically, I say that the duty of officers regulating traffic is to regulate it, not to -sit in hiding letting the traffic look after itself and afterwards seeking fines from drivers who might have been perfectly justified in exceeding some set speed limit. If a certain thoroughfare requires traffic regulation on stated occasions, then let us have the officers on the road at proper places, doing their proper job, and maybe safeguarding life, limb and property. It is becoming increasingly obvious in other parts of the Dominion that many failures have resulted in both police and traffic inspectors only prosecuting where there is an indisputable case against some driver, but that does not justify a field day when the usually innocent suffer with the usually guilty, and everyone else “steps lively” amid poorly controlled traffic. This comment is directed to speed traps on special occasions, and I do not suggest that on ordinary occasions no trapping should be done. In Auckland, for instance, 30 miles an hour is not objected to on concrete, and no driver requires more than this speed in a city area. There is only one sure way to deal with the “hog,” and that is to trap him and make the prosecution secure. A warning on the road has no permanent effect.