SPEED LIMITS

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 232, 20 December 1927, Page 7

SPEED LIMITS

25 M.P.H. IS OUT OF DATE Though modern cars are almost phenomenally braked and capable of safe high speeds, many police magistrates still persist in enforcing the unwritten law that 25 miles an hour is the maximum safe speed for a motorvehicle. Less than 20 years previously the opinion was that about 10 miles an hour was the safe maximum. A few years before that a car had to be preceded by a man earning a red flag. Unfortunately, magisterial opinion does not keep pace with the motoring movement, and equity in speed prosecutions probably will never result until all motoring offences are dealt with by a traffic court, with motor experts on the bench. SPEEDS GO UP Overseas, even police authorities are realising that traffic congestion can best be relieved by permitting traffic —particularly motor traffic —to go faster. In the United States the legal speed limits for cars have been raised in various States as follows: Idaho, SO to 35 miles an hour; Indiana, 40 to 45; New Hampshire, 25 to 35; North Caroline, 35 to 45; North Dakota, 30 to 35; Oregon, 30 to 35; and Washington, from 30 to 40. Michigan has abolished the speed limit. American authorities and others in Europe claim that the new high speeds are as safe as the old low limits, and that with better roads, better engines, balloon tyres, four-wheel brakes, and better drivers, 45 miles an hour is todays as safe as 25 used to be. They are also more comfortable and more economical. „ In the future better cars, roads, and drivers will make motor speeds even higher—congested roads alone will force them up. Often the question arises; Should j the automotive industry speak too -lewdly of the *g?eed possibilities of

cars? Perhaps there is another way of saying it. Few people who buy cars that range well above 60 miles an hour ever care to drive that fast, but they do want the reserve power of a speedy car for traffic use. There has been public criticism of automotive advertising in which high speeds are advertised. Of course, the critic's first thought is that this is an urge to drive fast, and he seldom realises that the reserve power he would like to enjoy in traffic is the py* Jhat makes a, car .go fasU,