SOME TRAFFIC PROBLEMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 77, 31 March 1928, Page 8

SOME TRAFFIC PROBLEMS.

Down in Wellington some motorists have lathered and lashed themselves into a state of furious indignation over the audacity of the Public Works Department in daring to construct a central pillar of a railway bridge over the Hutt Road, the pillar being in the middle of the car fairway. The indignation, lioVever, has somewhat subsided since it has been made clenr that the pillar will really make for safety bv dividing the traflio, and that any motorist who butts into this l>ig white safety post doesn't deserve to he entrusted with the navigation of a wheelbarrow.

There was a somewhat similar problem in <]uite another part of the island a few years ago, I remember. It concorjied that picturesque historic crag Pohaturoa»»*-"The Tall Rock" —which stands at the entrance to the little seaside town. Iho local body didn t like that sentry rock at their front giftes, so they proposed to demolish it and convert it into useful road metal. Fortunately one or two men who appreciated scenic and historic values capsized the road-metal party. Pohaturoa stands where it did, and it is now recognised, but not only does it posses* a landscape value, but it serves a useful purpose by dividing the motpr ear traffic. It is Whakatane's silent policeman.

Wairarapa now produces its motor-traffic bogy. It was pointed out at the meeting of the North Island Motor Union in Wellington the other dav that something would have to be done to keep pedestrians off the roads because "bitumenised roads absorbed light," as one delegate gravelv explained, and it was impossible to see the miscreants. Another delegate declared that "the nuisance was also experienced in Wellington." One man mildly interpolated the remark that as there were po footpaths on country joads pedestrians had nowhere els« to walk but on the roadway.

This interference bv impudent pedestrians with the exclusive right of motorists to the country roads must, of course, be nipped in the bud. Many suggestions for dealing with the "little cusses'' occur to one, but I think the most humane method would be to pass a law compelling all rural pedestrians to walk along the top of the fences. It would, of course, require practice but m time we would develop a, race of acrobats and the road owners would derive much innocent enjoyment from watching the efforts of beginners on the barb wire. —TAXGIWAI.