Post-Summer Skids. has disclosed, and

statistics have confirmed, that August and September are the

worst mouths in the calendar for skids. Discounting the larger number of vehicles on the roads and the holiday spirit, which tends towards carelessness among drivers, there remains an enormous number of skids that are caused by the” end of the summer ” condition of glass-smooth roads.

The frequent and heavy winter rains render these surfaces fairly innocuous by washing them clean. But in summer, when they become wet after a dry spell, then a skating rink is to be preferred. as a motoring surface.

This treacherous conditionis explained by the fact that in addition to ordinary dust, a film of rubber is deposited on the dry, smooth road by the friction of tyres. Oil drippings mix with the rubber and provide a compound which is turned by the first drops of rain into a perilous coating of grease.

Tyres and oil are not, however, entirely responsible for such a state of affairs. The materials of which these glassy roads are constructed have an oil base, and some of the oil content seeps through to the surface to add its quota to the slime at the first shower of rain.

The remedy lies, obviously, in surfacing with a non-slippery substance, and most surveyors are now coming to realise that this can be done cheaply and efficiently by tar-spraying followed by a generous coating of large-size chippings lightly rolled. in.