MOTOR REGULATIONS.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 March 1921, Page 10

MOTOR REGULATIONS.

CONTROL IN LONDON. ANOKLANDER’S OBSERVATIONS. The regulation of motor traffic in England and on the Continent was one of the matters that came under the observation of Mr. R. A. Laidlaw, during his recent trip abroad (says the Auckland Herald). “A point of particular interest,” states Air. Laidlaw, “was that during my stay in London the police gave up the use of the motor trap, which was usually set on unfrequented and perfectly safe roads where motorists were likely to speed up. All the newspaper comments I saw were strongly in favor of the abolition. A London paper, in congratulating the police on the decision, said: ‘As in Paris, the one offence should be driving to the common danger. Four milds an hour in certain circumstances might come within this definition, while in others 40 miles would not.’ London traffic is splendidly controlled by the police, but great improvement would be possible if horse-drawn vehicles were forbidden on certain of the principal, yet narrow, thoroughfares. I repeatedly saw a dozen or more motor vehicles including omnibuses and motor-trucks, delayed by a lumbering horse-drawn waggon, which set the pace sometimes for more than a block, causing great congestion.” There is no prohibition in London against motors passing standing tramcars, the regulation being four miles an hour, as in Auckland. “In my opinion,” remarks Air. Laidlaw, “this is far ahead of the American by-law, prohibiting a motor vehicle from passing a standing car. On Market Street in San Francisco I have repeatedly seen from 20 to 30 motors delayed, and ’ before they 1 could all get past the tram had come, to another stop at the corner of the' next block, so that sometimes several blocks would have to be traversed following a tramcar before an opportunity of passing it would occur.” There is no regulation prohibiting pillion riding on motor-cycles, even in the busy streets of London, and Mr. Laidlaw states that he found it was not responsible for any special number of accidents.