Enter The Traffic Lights

Gisborne city's first set of traffic lights came into operation this month, at the Peel Street-Gladstone Road intersection.

The result of more than a month's work by members of the City Council staff, with outside technical assistance, the lights appear to have solved the traffic congestion problem at the intersection very efficiently, and have eliminated the necessity of a pointsman on duty at peak traffic hours.

Of the latest design, the lights are more efficient than those in common use in the country, catering for the right-turning motorist as well as the straight-through traffic.

A steel cabinet mounted on the footpath houses the "electronic brain" which assesses the speed of vehicles approaching the intersection as well as counting them, to decide when the lights are to change.

Gisborne motorists adjusted to the new system well, but pedestrians were occasionally seen to be a trifle confused during the first few days of operation.