REACTION TESTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 December 1939, Page 3

REACTION TESTS

EXHIBITION APPARATUS FOR DRIVERS. A POPULAR FEATURE, One of the most popular features in the many exhibits in the Government Court at the Centennial Exhibition is the apparatus for testing motor drivers at the Transport Department's pavilion. The machines are the latest of their kind in the world, and it is understood that, ultimately, all candidates for driving licenses in New Zealand will be obliged to undergo such tests in order to qualify. Completed at Harvard University only a month before the Exhibition opened by the world authority on driver tests. Doctor H. de Silva, the machines are the latest developments of types already used extensively in the United States. Visitors to the transport pavilion are given marks as they undergo the tests for eye sight, reaction and judgment of speed, and already these results are most illuminating. Taxi drivers and others who spend much of their time in motor vehicles prove themselves better than the average man. The reaction test is probably the most entertaining. The candidate sits in a driving scat with a wheel to steer by and a brake and a dimmer set in the floor as in a real motorcar. In front of him is a road scene. For steering, it is necessary to keep the pointer controlled by the steering wheel on the middle line in the road, which moves erratically when tne machine is in operation. When the red light flashes on. the brake must be applied, and when the white lights of a motor-car appear on the road, the dimmer must be operated: when all three sections of the machine are working the candidate has a busy time applying the brake, steering and dipping his head-lights. Each time he fumbles or goes off his course the error is registered automatically, and in this way the marks are apportioned. EFFECT OF ALCOHOL. One example of the effect of alcohol on drivers provides striking proof of the danger caused in an emergency by intoxicated motorists. The normal time for the application of the brake on this machine is half a second, but one man —an experienced driver — took two and a half seconds to apply the brake when not sober. In the timelag of two seconds in this case the vehicle would have travelled at least 75 feet before the brake was applied. The eye sight tests are elaborate and comprehensive and include clarity of vision, depth of vision and recovery from glare, and for all of these marks are given. The test for the gauging of speed involves the use of a fascinating model will) two miniature cars on revolving belts, which travel at different rates. The candidate sees one car overtake the other just before the two cars disappear. and by operating a push button stops the cars when he thinks they are level. The attendants at the stand who put candidates through the test state that the competitive element encourages each visitor to give of his best, and that it is quite entertaining to see the annoyance, or pleasure, registered by the candidate when his marks are given to him at the end of the test. It is calculated that before the Exhibition is over 10,000 people will have been tested —sufficient basis for inter- . esting deduction to be worked from , the data so obtained. 11. is hoped to add several further de- - vices of an equally interesting nature, • including a grip test to show whether ; Hie wheel is easily wrenched from a driver’s hand, or his steering affected by a sudden twist: a sound test; and a radio-controlled model directed along 3 miniature highways by an actual, set 8 of driving controls, whereby it will be a possible to form an estimate of the i driver's road sense, knowledge and J judgment.