Effect On Pedestrians

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30542, 10 September 1964, Page 7

Effect On Pedestrians

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, September 9. It would be an interesting project for a sociologist to study the effects of the urban transport revolution on the pedestrian, the Commissioner of Transport (Mr R. J. Polaschek) said today.

Mr Polaschek, delivering a paper to the City Development and Environment Symposium in Wellington, said whatever our status, we all assumed the role of pedestrian when occasion demanded. “Daily, thousands of people decide whether or not they will walk the distance of some journey,” he said, “or whether they will travel by taxi or public transport, or use a car or even hire a rental car. “Whether or not a person will walk or ride depends on many factors, but length of journey and cost of public transport frequently are important determinants of the decision made. “I have referred to the increasing reluctance of people

to walk any further than is absolutely necessary. Just how far and how quickly this trend will continue I cannot say. "In overseas cities, and especially in the United States, there is an almost external conflict between pedestrians and motorists. "Older people particularly, who have to visit the larger cities in New Zealand, undergo great nervous strain, confusion, and not only in their efforts to avoid motor vehicles, but also because of the noise that they have to endure. “It is not by chance that

people over 60 years of age figure prominently in our pedestrian accident toll. “Transport Department records show conclusively that the inability of older people to judge the speeds of oncoming motor vehicles, or to hear them, together with their physical defects and their fondness for outer garments of sombre colours, are factors which continue to make them particularly vulnerable to the motor vehicle.”