Roads that Mesmerise.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 October 1938, Page 4

Roads that Mesmerise.

That the new German State highways were horrible roads to drive on was the opinion expressed by Mr P. Good, the deputy-director of the British Standards Institute, at a meeting at Christchurch. The German autobahnen were objectionable to drive on because their extreme uniformity, flatness, and straightness seemed to mesmerise the driver. He himself had found on one occasion that quite unconsciously he was driving full out and heading straight for the back of another car. It seemed to him that it was quite by chance that he appreciated that an accident would result if he held to his course. Many Germans, he said, had had similar experiences, and the accident rate on these roads was very high. Not a few had refused to drive on them, and the authorities had decided that in future all State highways would retain some of their natural features in grades and curves. The present roads, he added, were excellent for heavy military traffic, travelling about 12 miles an hour.