MOTORING
Traffic Lights and Crossings An experienced driver, who for reasons that will appear has the matter very much at heart just now, suggested to me the other day that some of the risks of street-traffic might be eliminated or at least lessened by setting up the yellow warning traffic-light separately at a convenient distance away from the red and green, say, twenty-five yards. His argument is that unless or until the yellow lights are all timed to show for the same period and for a longer than is taken now, the warning is in many cases given too late.
Too Short " Yellow " What he had in mind, I think, was the faster portion of the traffic, though the episode which gave rise to the dis- cussion was no proof of it. Driving on an extremely greasy surface at night, he came, at something like twelve miles an hour, to a cross-road and as his front wheels seemed to touch the stop-line the yellow glowed, followed (he says) immedi- ately by the red. It was manifestly impossible to stop dead in any circumstances, and excessively dangerous to try to on a slippery street. He went on, as everybody would, technically in the right of it. Yellow does not mean Stop, and if he had managed to stop on that surface without disaster to himself or anyone else he would have blocked the freed street, now shown green.
Nobody's Fault Unfortunately, owing to the very short yellow, another car had already arrived at the crossing on the other arm, also (within an immeasurable margin of time) in the right of it. My friend's car hit it as it was turning away and, still more unfortunately, capsized it. Nobody was hurt, the driver of the victim climbed out of the hole in the roof and accepted a cigarette with exemplary calm, there were no recriminations, nobody was told it was their fault, the police only displayed concern at the inconvenience suffered by all, the overturned car was righted (she was a featherweight) and everybody went on their ways. A magnificent display of our alleged national phlegm.
" Remote " Yellows and Crossings I think there is a good deal in my friend's argument that a " remote " yellow warning light would reduce the risk of collision and, what is quite as important, of skidding and side- slip and the resultant " voluntary " broadside-on collisions brought about by the type that drives on his brakes and races the lights. He is getting more numerous every week in London. I should like to see that tried, as I have long wanted to see the walkers' crossings set back a reasonable distance from the cross-streets. That position always seems to me to hinder the flow of traffic, and I have never been able to see why it was so arbitrarily adopted. Is there any special advantage in making people (trying to induce them, would be more accurate) to cross exactly where they are best able to hold up the traffic turning into or out of another stream ? What is the objection to putting the Belishas 25 yards back ?
Yarmouth, I.O.W.• It is not, I admit, an easy place to reach and the number of cars, foreigners to the Island, which go there at any time of year must be inconspicuous. Which is probably why Yarmouth in the Isle of Wight is one of the most peaceful places in England. Motoring in the Island is a very modest affair indeed, and although it is pleasant enough for a very lazy day's drive, only its most faithful lovers are likely to consider it worth the bother and expense of taking a car across from the mainland.
" Some Foreign Quay " None of these objections apply to Yarmouth, if only for the excellent reason that you need not take the car there at all. You can leave it comfortably at Lymington and cross by yourself in the steamer. You have all the special joy of a drive down to the sea through the New Forest, plus the agreeable illusion that you are going overseas, but without any of the attendant responsibilities. You land on that small pier as you would on any far more exotic—Santa Cruz de Teneriffe, say, or Elba—with the rare sensation that there is no motoring here for you.
Soap and Anchors It is a sheer delight, with its two crossed streets, its tiny harbour, its proportionately tiny yacht-anchorage, its few sea-facing houses with their gardens running down to the shingle, its fine view up the Solent. It is a port, with a port's commerce, and in the same shop that supplies you with shaving soap you can buy an anchor or a coil of best Manila—or you could the last time I was there. If you are cursed with the sort of mind that cannot relax, must be incessantly exercised, the non-absorbent type, you can hire and visit the sights of the neighbourhood, such as Carisbrooke and the Needles.
Silence If you are luckier, you see at once that here you have one of the few quiet places left in the world. There is no noise at all, unless you count the voices of the little waves that slap the breakwater, the creak of blocks, the throb of a liner's engines outward bound (on a still night you hear that from a mile away as clearly as if you were on board) and the surge of her wash on the shore long after she has passed and is off Hurst Castle, her nose well down Channel.
A New Sort of Oil I have now finished my test of the new Shell (" Double ") engine-oil which the makers sent to me for trial and report, and I think the results should interest owners of long mileaged cars. As I wrote in my preliminary report, the chief virtue of this new oil lies in its freedom from gumming up piston-rings in cold weather and the exceptionally easy first start it allows a stone-cold engine. In practice I always turn the engine over by hand (in cold weather) to free the congealed oil, but I found this unnecessary with the Shell. That is the feature to which the makers attach most import- ance, I believe, but there is another which may appeal with equal force to the economical.
Economy For a reason I do not profess to understand this oil lasted longer in my engine than any other I have used since it left its fiftieth-thousand mile behind. The car is over ten years old, the engine is a 2-litre Six, the sump holds 6 quarts, and the cylinders have not been re-bored. During the last 25,000 miles or so the normal consumption of oil in this country has been about t,000 miles to the gallon, 800 on the mountain stages of my continental tour last year. I have done 1,50o miles on a gallon of Shell, driving over familiar roads at my usual speeds—that is, seldom over so and very rarely over 6o, in short bursts as occasion offers. A point I noticed, which I think worth mentioning, was that the consumption was lower at the beginning of the trial than at the end. Only one quart was used in the first Soo miles, the remaining three being spread over the other 1,000, at progressively faster rates. Judging by the compression and other signs the engine still needs no re-bore and I therefore conclude that I have had the good luck to see a perfect demonstration of the generally forgotten fact that oil must lose body (if that is the right word) under ordinary working conditions. A trifle obvious, of course, but useful to [Note.—Readers' requests for advice from our Motoring Correspondent on the choice of new cars should be accompanied by a stamped and addressed envelope. The highest price payable must be given, as well as the type of body required. No advice can be given on the purchase, sale or exchange of used cars.]
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