LESS SPEED, LESS DUST

Taupo Times, Volume II, Issue 98, 4 December 1953, Page 8

LESS SPEED, LESS DUST

THIS summer is likely to be the dustiest^in Taupo's history. There are more roads in the Borough than ever before, more people and more motor vehicles. Even if the weather is not unusually dry, the dust will be bad. It might be worth while considering the problem. Obviously nothing in the way of sealing is likely to be of any great benefit over the next few months, for sealing cannot be done in a hurry. But there is one possibility of action that would reduce the dust nuisance n the borough very considerably and would cost nothing. It is a reduction of the speed of motor vehicles on our unsealed roads to not more than twenty miles per hour. Recent experiment on one of these roads indicated that a speed of not more than that resulted in a marked reduction in dust. It is not suggested that anything should be done by way of by-law or regulation. Apart from the dust mena.ce, such a speed limit would not have much hx its favour. And it is unlikely that such a by-law would be upheld in the courts. The suggestion is that citizens should, in the interests of the town and its people, discipline themselves voluntarily by observing on all dirt roads of the borough a speed limit of 20 m.p.h. Though this suggestion may seem somewhat quaint in this age of

speed, there is no doubt whatever, as test has shown, that it would be effective. Nothing can be dohe to prevent the Taupo wind from blowing, but the motorists of Taupo can reduce their contribution to the dust clouds that mar both Taupo and its reputation as a holiday centre. Such a voluntary speed restriction may perhaps commend itself to the people of Taupo. There is no citizen of Taupo who would be hurt or inconvenienced in any real way by keeping his speed down to twenty miles per hour on dirt roads within the borough. It is possible that local car and truck owners could soon initiate a reform in this direction by taking up such a practice at once, and perhaps help by affixing stickers to their cars drawing attention to this voluntary * "Dust Limit." Two large trucks were seen recently to proceed slowly on a town road past some small children, raising hardly any dust. The next moment a small car passed at high speed and children and others were smothered in dust,. It is not suggested that Taupo motorists are bad mannered. Most of us have probably not thought much about possibilities of minimising the dust menace. Why not be our own traffie inspectors and impose on ourselves a "Dust Limit" Lof twenty miles per hour?