Re: [Vic] Tram & Pedestrian Accident Today

["John Kerley" <deaftech@ozemail.com.au>]

David McLoughlin <davemcl@AXE*THISiprolink.co.nz> wrote in message
38603c88@news.iprolink.co.nz">news:38603c88@news.iprolink.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!

Also by Eldon Hogan at times!

 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.

Geelong also had funny traffic lights.  In the middle of the intersection
there was a single pole with a series horizontal red and green tubes facing
each of the four directions.  There were about four or five of each colour.
Thus you might commence with say five green tubes showing and then one by
one they would extinguish until the last green would go out and the five red
come on, and so on.  Like the the clock type signals in Melbourne, they gave
the motorist some idea as he approached the intersection how much time was
left before changing.  Unlike Melbourne there was no amber indication and
also they were not supplemented by normal type lights.  There was just the
single post in the middle of the road,  which also held the tram wires.  The
rest of the tram wires were also supported by poles down the middle of the
road.
>
> Any idea then when hook turns outside the CBD were abolished? It would
> certainly speed up the trams if they were reinstated.
>
>
As far as I recall, it was around the time I got my licence!

Cheers,

John Kerley