THE PEDESTRIAN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 58, Issue 43, 30 November 1937, Page 6

THE PEDESTRIAN

AT A LOSS IN ASHBURTON. BY-LAWS HAVE NO MEANING. GENIAL, BUT INCONSIDERATE. For years the problem of pedestrian control in Ashburton has been .the subject of discussion by public and civic authorities but it remains, and many people are of the opinion that it should be tackled with determination. The position, it is held, has been allowed to drift from bad to worse, and because of the immunity granted pedestrians have come, like the motorists who flagrantly daily break the law, to a realisation that they can do as they please. It is a fact that cannot be contradicted that the . average pedestrian in Ashburton knows less about the rules of the road or the footpath than the pedestrians of any other town in the Dominion, a position that has arisen through lax control over a long period of years. On the whole the pedestrian is a genial person, but has little consideration for his fellows. He will meet a friend in the middle of the footpath at a busy period and stand there talking for many minutes, instead of at once moving to one side of the path, leaving the space clear for those who wish to move up and down. This fault is particularly noticeable on Tuesday and Friday afternoons and on Friday evenings, when .groups of three, four and even six people may be seen talking in the middle of the East Street footpath. Time and again these groups are politely broken up by the constable on the beat, but the man in blue has not moved far before the group is reformed and so it goes on. t By-Laws Quoted. Tho police, it is understood, cannot do much without the express authority of the Borough Council, and this authority is not given. By-Law No. 233 reads: “No person shall loiter, or stand, or remain in or upon any street, private street, footway, footpath, thoroughfare, bridge, or public place after being requested to move on by any constable, peace officers or officer of the Council.” By-Law No. 230 reads: “Persons shall not assemble in a street or where streets intersect one another so as in any way to impede the traffic or cause an obstruction, or incommode any person passing thereon.” Both these rules are broken without heed every Tuesday and Friday in Ashburton. Congregations of pedestrians at the corner of East and Burnett Streets have long been a source of annoyance to motorists, who have been forced out on to their wrong side of the street in order to avoid groups of people who stand on the roadway. The surprising part of this is that motorists have suffered so long. Youths have been known to spit on passing cars which have made them shift even an inch or two. Parking of Bicycles. There seems to be no reference in the By-Laws to the parking of cycles. Ninety per cent of these machines arc placed on the footpaths and in some areas they take up a considerable amount of the footpath. Of late, a number of shops have supplied a stand against which cycles may be rested, but tho machines are usually placed inside the stand, causing obstruction to the paths, which, in the view of some people, brings them in the scope of By-Law No. 213, which says: “No person shall place any article or thing in such a position as that it will encroach upon any footpath in any street, or obstruct any portion of the way over or along the same, without the consent of the Council in writing first obtained.” Bicycles, it is held by the authorities, should be placed outside the footpath, but there are wide and deep channels in the Ashburton streets, which prevent cycles being parked against posts without the wheels slipping into the water, when the spokes act as a strainer, picking up all manner of refuse. The Jay Walker. Ashburton people, or a large proportion of them, do not realise that they have the right of way on street intersections where the path is marked out with diagonal lines, and motorists must give way (within reason) to pedestrians at those points. Ignorance of the law on this point has.led to some confusion, where motorists have pulled up to let pedes-

trians go by and the pedestrians have insisted in giving the vehicle the right of way.. Jay-walking is seen at its worst in Ashburton. The regular crossings do not exist for many people. They step off footpaths wherever they happen to be, and as if that were not enough to disconcert approaching traffic, they hesitate on the roadway, step backwards and forwards, and generally disorganise the smooth running of traffic where traffic has the right of way.