Careless Drivers

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 563, 16 January 1929, Page 8

Careless Drivers

UNLEARNED ROAD LESSONS ALTHOUGH there were over 1,000 prosecutions by the City Council Traffic Department last year, and. in addition. a large number of prosecutions conducted by the police. Auckland motorists yet have a lot to learn before the great majority of them can honestly say that for a whole year they have driven in accordance with the regulations, and with due regard for the rig'hts of other users of the roads.

rpHE experiences of most drivers lead to the impression that there also remain a very considerable number of pedestrians who place their own rights to the roadway on the same plane as their rights to the footpath, failing to learn the lesson that frequent street accidents have taught others during the past couple of years. The past year was notable for another severe lot of parking restrictions placed on the motorists, together with a set of Government regulations, characterised by a series of anomalies

and ambiguities. They have served only to increase the ill-feeling directed against those officers of the Government responsible for the regulations, and to excite accusations of incompeteney from the motorists, their organisations, and even traffic inspectors all over the Dominion. Several complaints have been made to The Sun by motorists, who are annoyed by the fact that, though they try to observe the parking restrictions, and put themselves to inconvenience in doing so, they see cars standing unattended in Queen Street, and in other streets, for much longer periods than allowed by the by-laws. The reply is that every court day a dozen or two people are hauled up and fined for these offences, but there rojnaiu plenty who do not learn from the misfortunes of others. This morning The Sun made a short tally over an area of some 200 yards in Queen Street, and noted nine cars Which were standing on the street unattended when the reporter arrived. One left nine minutes later, another 11 minutes, one 15, and another 17 minutes. Five of the nine were still

in the same place half an hour later, and looked as if they were likely to remain until lunch-time, an hour afterwards. Albert Street would provide much the same story any day of the week, and it is rather unfortunate that the new restrictions prohibit the parking of cars in the midle of the road, and cause them to occupy the concrete sideways. The result is that, for anything up to double the time allowed, a driver who is careless about his parking, and occupies most of the concrete strip, forces all other traffic on to the rough, once-tar-sealed macadam in the middle. UNUSUAL CASES The offence of leaving a car unattended in the streets is not always the result of deliberate flouting of the restrictions. Auckland has a couple of unique cases in point. In one, a prominent business-man, who usually leaves his car at a parking station, collecting it in the evening, made a hurried call to his office, leaving his car in the street. He then became so immersed in a question that cropped up that he forgot the car. Late that evening he went to the parking station, swore that he had left his car as usual, and there was a pretty hullabaloo at its disappearance. The car meantime stood in Queen Street from 8.30 a.m. one day until the owner arrived to find it there at the same time the next day. Both the traffic department and the police had blue papers for him. In another case a woman driver asserted that her car,, left in an area where parking was prohibited, was in charge of an attendant. The inspector asserted that there had been no-one in the car. The evidence before the magistrate showed that there was a child a few months old in a basket in the back of the car. The magistrate remarked that he had to draw a line somewhere, and the usual fine was inflicted. CARELESS PARKING No excuse can be made, however, for the number of careless motorists who park their cars carelessly in the street, and occupy more room than they should. In Auckland the requirements are that a driver shall put two* wheels alongside the kerb. Three of the five cars mentioned earlier in this article, were anything up to a ya%l from the kerb, a serious matter in a street as narrow as is Queen Street. Drivers of this variety are likely to receive quite a lot of attention in the near future. Prolonged attempts to get the City Council, to deal effectively with the traffic problem have been made, but neither in the direction of traffic control, nor in that of provision of outlets, has the term of the present council seen any notable improvement. The jay-walker still crosses the street as of yore, the motorist still parks his car without regard for the flow of other traffic, and Grafton Bridge, Newmarket, Symonds Street, Karangahape Road, clustered tramcars, and tramcentre poles, are just as much unsolved puzzles as they were three or four year ago.