TRAFFIC RULES IN U.S.A

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 848, 17 December 1929, Page 13

TRAFFIC RULES IN U.S.A

LANES PAINTED ON ROADWAY The theory that soldiers in columns of fours will get somewhere faster and with less road space than the same number of men permitted to straggle along in no particular form is being applied to the solution of the constantly increasing traffic problem in several American cities. Surveys, particularly in Indianapolis, an island city of 425,000 population where there is one motor for every four inhabitants, convinced police experts that citizens were not getting the full benefit of two main arteries which had been widened at great cost. The arteries were designed to carry two lines of parked cars parallel to the curbing, two lines of slow traffic, one in each direction, and two lines of fast traffic, one in each direction—six lines in all. Because of a tendency of drivers to disregard the rights of others by straddling the imaginary lanes, there were many times when one line ol’ movihg traffic could go in either direction. In other words, one car was taking the space belonging to two. So the police painted five white lines, each five inches in width, down the arteries, dividing the pavement into six lanes. Placards at strategic points informed motorists • anew that they could park in the outside lane, next to the curb,travel slowly in the next lane and go the limit (30 miles an hour) in the inside lane. This gave three lanes for traffic in each direction. Buses were required to stay in the slow lane, so their stops for passengers did not impede the fast lane. Motor-cycle policemen cruised the arteries for several weeks compelling motorists to stay in the lanes until they were educated sufficiently for the system to operate without supervision. The immediate result was that hundreds more cars passed a given point during rush hour with less confusion, less scraping of fenders and clashing of bumpers than before the lanes were marked.

Detroit, with one car for each 4.5 inhabitants, recently has adopted the idea, with improvements. One that Detroit has inaugurated is a regulation compelling drivers who wish to switch from fast to slow lines or vice versa to signal their intention to drivers behind. This is done by giving the arm signal for a turn. If the driver wishes to move from the fast inside lane to the slow middle lane, he signals a right turn. If he goes from slow to fast, he signals a left turn.

By this means the drivers avoid the danger of being struck from the rear by a car in the lane into which they are switching. Of course, the driver still is held responsible for ascertaining before he starts to move over that there is no other car close enough to collide with him in the lane to which he is switching.

The clutch stop which is now fitted to many cars is a device which stops the clutch member from spinning after it is released, and enables changes of gear to be made quickly and easily and with less delay. The stop is a form of brake which comes into operation automatically when the clutch is pushed out. Were it not for this stop a change of gear upward could not be made until the spinning plate had slowed down of its own accord.