MECHANICAL ROAD GUIDE.

Accessory makers also seem to have realised that a new generation of motorists has arisen who do not seem to have had much road experience before they became drivers and owners of motor vehicles. Most of the early motorists were either cyclists or horsemen, while to-day many motorists have not graduated through either of those schools. The result is that an automatic road guide device, styled the “mileometer,” is offered to the public, by which when it is installed on the dashboard of a car, a driver can read the conformation of the road for a mile ahead. It tells one beforehand the possible points of danger from cross-roads, bridges, &c., while at the same time it directs one on the journey.

It seemed to me when I was trying it almost uncanny in its correctness of detail. This mileometer is about the size of a speedometer dial, but it has an oblong in place of a circular face, under which runs a strip route tape upon which the directions are given, on one side for the outward journey and on the other for the return. Arrows inform the driver which way to turn at the exact point where the car should change direction, though the warning is given a mile ahead. Its mechanism is similar to a speedometer, but in place of indicating the speed it informs the user of the name of the road on which the car is travelling, the direction, miles travelled, and distance to the next town, besides giving hotels, garages, and points of interest on the route. This device is being offered by the Road Guides Ltd., and mileometer route tapes are made in units of an average day’s drive.

In America over 60,000 miles of routes are available to users of this machine, and service stations are established at all terminal and interterminal points, where tapes are exchanged free of charge to all mileometer users. The same system is being carried out in the United Kingdom, some 30,000 miles of roads being available, while new routes are being recorded daily. When a vehicle owner purchases the device, one route tape is included for whatever journey the owner wishes, but as at no extra cost all routes for which tapes exist are available on loan, no expensive map equipment is required. Cross-country as well as main routes are being prepared.