Re: [Vic] Tram & Pedestrian Accident Today

[David McLoughlin <davemcl@AXE*THISiprolink.co.nz>]

John Kerley wrote:

> When I got my licence (35 years ago!) all controlled intersections with
> trams required a hook turn.

35 years ago!!!  My apologies for not having known that. However I was a
kid in Melbourne in the 1960s and the 1970s and the only hook turns I
recall were in the city. My father used to rave about them every time we
drove in there. There were not as many traffic lights outside the CBD
when I was a kid... I even remember Camberwell Junction without lights,
controlled by a police pointsman! Pointsmen also controlled several of
the CBD intersections (like Swanston&Flinders) seven days a week then
(though there were lights and hook turns there).

When I was really small, I remember out in the suburbs, there were
intersections with really odd clock-dial like traffic signals, with a
clock-like face that had red, amber and green painted around the outside
of the circle, and an arm that swept around the face like a second-hand.
They worked like traffic lights. If the signal facing you had its
sweeping arm on green you could go, on red stop, etc. Some of these
intersections I also recall with traffic lights as well.

Any idea then when hook turns outside the CBD were abolished? It would
certainly speed up the trams if they were reinstated.  


David McLoughlin
Auckland New Zealand