"Safety First."

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17393, 2 March 1922, Page 6

"Safety First."

The methods by which the "Safety First" Campaign Committee propose to impress upon the public, from the school children upwards, the necessity for exercising care for their own safety in using the roads, are jvell designed to achieve the object aimed at, if those for whose benefit the campaign -haa been instituted pay any attention to them. With the warnings issued, in Various forms, by the committee firmly fixed in /the public mind, and the special police control of traffic at busy points in operation, the number of street accidents in Christchurch should be reduced to a minimum. Police control, no matter how efficient it may be, cannot, however, be as effective as it . should be unless the local authorities do what they can to assist it. The establishment of a "safety zone'* in the Square opposite the tram shelter, which the Council has deoided to put in hand, is an instance cf what a local body can do to control traffio. and protect the public, though, as we indicated yesterday, we do not agree with the stylo of the proposed "safety zone." Judging by the letter from the general manager of the Tramway Board to the Town Clerk,, whioh we publish elsewhere', the idea of this zone, pbt forward by the Traffio Committee, came from the Board, which was prepared to carry out the work on a more elaborate and superior sfa'e than was recommended by the committee. The zone described in Mr Thompson's letter, with the defined footway from the shelter across the tram tracks, .would be a great deal better than nothing.- But we still prefer our own suggestion of an "island," raised three or four inches above the surrounding roadway, with a lamp post at each end, and it would be a still further improvement if another island of like design were placed nearer the Cathedral, so as to divide the north-bound and south-bound traffic into two streams. If objection is taken to a raised island, though we can see no warrant for such objection, it would be possible to compromise by placing, the lamp posts on slightly raised triangular islands and having marked lines between each, within which no wheeled traffio might trespass. That would be safe enough, if the traffio obeyed the regulations. The advantage of the wholly raised island would be that trespass on it would be impossible. It is quite easy to have too much space in a city thoroughfare and the Square is a proof pf it. Traffio and pedestrians stray all over it, whereas, if the traffic were compelled to move along certain clearly defined channels, it j would be better for every one using the roadway. The *ame icmr.rk applies equally well to the north-west and south-west corners of the Square as to the part in front of the Cathedral. The tram lines cut directly across ihese ccr- . nera, thereby doing mart to creata ch&-

otic traffic conditions. If the tracks were laid closer to tho Qodloy statue site space would be made in each corner for islands. These would davi.He the traffic which now occupies mti 'h more spsu-o than its volume warrants. In earlier days the existence of large open areas in the Square was no inconvenience to any one. Traffic was slow and tively scanty, ar.d pedestrians were few. Nowadays the population has very largely increased and traffic is in much greater volume and very much faster. The time has come when this change in street conditions should be recognised by the local authorities, and provision made to meet it in the manner we have indicated.