The Second Interim Report of the Departmental Committee which is
inquiring into the taxation and regulation of road vehicles is of great interest. One of the most important recom- mendations is that the speed limit should be abolished. We hope that this recommendation will be acted upon. Wo are offering no sort of excuse for those who drive motors inconsider- ately when we say that the present legal speed limit of twenty miles an hour has no relevance to the facts. Everybody knows that it is possible to drive much faster than twenty miles an hour on an open stretch of road without exposing anybody to the least danger. On the other hand, a speed of much less than twenty miles an hour may be very dangerous, as, for example, when one is passing through a country town on market day where the traffic is very badly regulated or not regulated at all. The Committee very rightly sees that - the true solution is to prohibit dangerous driving without reference to the speed. That covers the whole ground. The sooner the speed limit goes the better in the interests of safety and common sense. It is not good that respectable citizens should habitually break the law as they do now. The penalties for dangerous driving would, of course, be made more severe.
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