SHE SAYS...

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33094, 8 December 1972, Page 16

SHE SAYS...

You can die of bad habits, we are told, but you can die of good habits, too, if you are a pedestrian. Anybody going into town for their Christmas shopping, when they are not used to doing much shopping in the city, should remember this. The good habit you can die from is the one so many had drummed into use when we were children: “Look right, left, then right again, and cross.” The place where this habit can be fatal is on a one-way street—in rushing, heavy Christmas traffic. It becomes a reflex to follow this pattern when one comes to cross a street. Very few pedestrians are likely to remember things are different every time they arrive on the kerb of a one-way street. So when you are walking through town, watch out! Best of all, keep to the controlled crossings. The corollary to this is that when you are driving along a one-way street, you need to keep a watch for pedestrians who look resolutely the other way and step out into your path. The other danger which can arise with one-way streets involves passengers,

especially those who are not drivers themselves. They are so used to getting out of a car on the pavement side, and without looking, that unless you warn them they will do it automatically when you stop on the righthand side of a one-way street. I should think the elderly — and maybe children — would be the most likely to do this, although it would certainly be easy enough for anyone to do in an absentminded moment. Laned roads, such as Moorhouse Avenue and Bealey Avenue, can be a big danger to pedestrians as well. They are inclined to underestimate the approach speed of the traffic and the amount of ground they have to cover to get out of its way. Pedestrians are also likely to forget the second lane of cars, coming up (maybe out of sight) on the “inside” of the lane nearest them. I have seen an elderly woman walk across one lane of a multi-laned road, then stop on the lane dividing line and look the other way before stepping out—just as one can do on a one-way street.