go ahead with allowing larger cars should be greeted with regret.

Last September, when the idea of larger cars was first floated, it seemed clear that the idea was being driven by some car importers who wished to bring in a wider variety of vehicles and were having problems finding cars which fell within the Island's strict length and width limits.

As Transport Minister Ewart Brown says, cars are often being built with larger and safer bumpers now. That is a good thing for Bermuda's drivers who, given the state of driving conditions, need all the protection they can get.

And, supporters will argue, this is a question of inches, not feet: What difference does it make? At the same time, there are still good arguments why larger cars have no place in Bermuda.

Bermuda's narrow roads mean wider or longer cars could make the Island's traffic even more dangerous, and in some places, they could make roads virtually impassable; no doubt the cry will then go up for wider roads where cars and bikes can proceed at even greater speeds.

Nor is it clear -- on practical grounds -- why people want high performance cars such as BMWs and Mercedes in Bermuda. While the quality of their engineering may make them more robust than a Subaru or a Kia, they can never be used in Bermuda at the kinds of high speeds for which they were designed.

Dr. Brown argues that the main reason for allowing larger cars is safety. He says some car dealers are cutting down bumpers now to make sure they fit the Island's size limits.

This, Dr. Brown argued, is dangerous, although this newspaper has been told that some dealers have "legal'' bumpers which are put on cars when they are taken to TCD and removed afterwards. Thus the cars are "safe'', but illegal, when they are actually on the road.

Dr. Brown is looking down the wrong end of the telescope. If car dealers are bringing in cars which are illegal, surely the answer is to ban those particular models, not to make a previously illegal act legal by fiat.

But the Government may be caught on the horns of a dilemma. Police cars were imported which were oversized, and more recently, Works Minister Alex Scott has been driving an oversize GP car -- and there are more on the way.

It is hard to avoid the suspicion that this latest move is, at least in part, a backdoor effort to legitimise those decisions and to remove the appearance of hypocrisy from the Government.

This may be unfair. It could well be that Dr. Brown and his Cabinet really see this as a safety issue.

But at a time when his Ministry is working on a comprehensive plan for better transport services in Bermuda, which presumably has as one of its goals the reduction of congestion, it seems off that Dr. Brown has moved on two areas -- the funeral limousine legislation and this plan -- which will make Bermuda's roads harder to navigate.