"DON'T J."

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 32, 7 February 1934, Page 10

"DON'T J."

SYDNEY STREETS. CONTROL OF PEDESTRIANS BIG CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDXEV, February 1.

In shops and offices, on hoardings, in lifts and telephone boxes, in fact everywhere throughout the city, one is eonfronted just now at every turn with a mysterious admonition in big block letters—"Don't t7." This is (he warning issued to the people of .Sydney to remind them that, starting from to-day, those crossing a stneet diagonally, or outside the lines prescribed for them by the civic authorities and the police, will be liable to "the pains and penalties of the law."'

Wc have had threats of this sort often enough before, but this time the authorities seem to be in earnest. Mr. MacKay, the Metropolitan Superintendent of Police, says:—"This campaign is the intensive that wo have ever undertaken," and in extreme cases the police will press for the maximum penalty, which is to be a lino of £10. But it is some consolation to know that Mr. MacKay's campaign is to be "educational rather than punitive*'—indeed, the officers of the law, out of the goodness of their hearts, will even try " a little cajolery." Last week more than 100 police, including sergeants and 50 recruits, sworn in for this special duty, started taking lessons in a special "school of instruct ion" formed at head quarters. There traffic officers informed' them what the pedestrians must do, what the motorist must do, and what the polics must do, to make the streets of the city safer. And to-day they were let loose upon us.

Crowds "Practising." Several of the busiest city crossings have been marked out with bright orange lines, and it was quite amusing to watch the crowds sedulously "practising" along these gangways. For the first day* the regulations arc to be enforced rigidly in the great square, bounded by George and Elizabeth Streets, Hunter and King Streets —the heart of Sydney's shopping centre. But the area is to be expanded rapidly, and Mr. MacKay believes that within the week the population of the city will become essentially "jay-iuinded" in the correct sense of the term. I

Frobably the commissioner is unduly optimistic, but it is certainly high time that a vigorous effort was made to afford more protection to life and limb at our city crossings. This applies not only to pedestrians, but to motorists. As the "Sun" says: "The. general habit of plunging through the traffic stream at any angle and scampering back and forth to dodge the spinning wheels, lias produced an agile community with a high standard of footwork, which lias often won the admiring comments of visitors. But the price of this athletic performance has been paid in the hospitals and motor repair shops and by the ragged nerves of countless harassed motor drivers." American Method.

A correspondent has drawn attention to the careful restrictions imposed in American cities where "the pedestrians are signalled across in batches by the use of loud electric bells, and there is a policeman on duty at each corner to see that they go across safely, and also to prevent anybody crossing at an unauthorised time." The "Sun" assures us that those who have experienced the intense traffic of London with the long waits at crossings, the great traffic blocks, and the swift efficiency with which the police control them and the foot passengers as well, have frequently

commented on the latitude permitted the public by the Sydney authorities. Very likely, and though Sydney's narrow streets are not congested quite so closely as the streets of London or New York, the lack of restriction and control has rendered them extremely dangerous, to foot passengers and motorists alike, and the authorities ought to be able to depend upon the active sympathy and co-operation of the general public in this much-needed reform.