KEEP TO THE RIGHT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 214, 9 September 1891, Page 4

KEEP TO THE RIGHT.

Visitors to Auckland are sometimes amueed and not unfrequently annoyed, at our free and easy defiance of the rules of the footpath. Our citizens rush along Queen-street in a happy-go-lucky styl e that scatters all conventional ideas of pedestrian iaui with a vengeance. Sometimes a few passengers land from the mail steamer, and start for a leisurely Stroll up our main thoroughfare. They find themselves jostled and hustled by foot passengers travelling in the opposite direction, and meet with more collisions between the wharf and the firebell at the foot of Wake-field-street than they would in a day's outing in the crowded streets of London or Paris. In vein they ' keep strictly to the right-hand «ide of the footpath. Old gentlemen run butting into them, and mutter audibly about the awkwardness of new chuma. Stout, mUdle-aged ladies resolutely block the way, and assume an injuredlook if thoir parasala collide with the visitors' chimney-pot baits. The newcomers begin to think everything is reversed ab the Antipodes, and"the left-hand side of the footpath must be** the correct

one. Bub the experimenb is a failure, and fehey are ever and anon brought up short by advancing pedestriaas in full sail, who scowl and show a disposition not to. budge calculated to appal tho stoutest-hearted tourist going. The visitors in despair take to the middle of the footpath, and in order to make onward progress, they have to dodge in and oub like dogs at a fair. Sometimes theyrun against a groupof ladies, or vary the performance by barking their shins against a perambulator wheeled by a. gaping nursegirl and spreading itself comfortably over the middre of the footpath. It is really tiiae that foot passengers obesrved the simple rule of keeping to the right. The neglect of this makes Queensfcreefc one of the most unpleasant) parts of the city to the pedestrian. If the rule were nob observed in large cities, foot traffic would be hopelessly impeded. In Oxfordatreet or Resenb-street, London, two streams of people going in opposite directions manage to travel comfortably. No one ever anticipates collision. Evan the country yokels when they visit tovrn fall into the habit instinctively. In Queenstreet or Karangahape Road with a few score of people there is constant confusion on the footpaths. Wβ observe the rules of the road with regard to vehicular traffic, but in footpath locomotion we are behind nearly every city in the colonies. We strongly urge upon our Auckland pedestrians bo keep the righthand side in walking. In a very short time from force of habit people would take ib everywhere, and the difficulties of piloting one's way through a straggling , crowd in the thoroughfares would disappear. We know of no practice that would teed more to the comfort of foot passengers and do away with feho awkward disorderly appearance of tho city, than a general observance of the right of the way. '