MOTORDOM

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 153, 25 March 1937, Page 17

MOTORDOM

by

Chassis

WHY NOT SAFETY ZONES FOR TRAM PASSENGERS?

And Notice Boards Easier to See and

Read?

There are two features of traffic in Wellington which deserve early attention from the Wellington City Council. One relates to notice-boards dealing with parking-place restrictions and the other with safety zones for pedestrians. The first is a safeguard for the motorist and the second protects the pedestrians and assists the motorist.

In some parts of the city notices in- r dieating tramstops are wrapped around poles or placed high up on poles alongside verandas. Again, notices dealing with parkingplace time-limits are placed on posts or verandas parallel with the thoroughfare. Motorists should be enabled to read as they drive. It should not be necessary for drivers to halt to read a sign, especially those which are very wordy. To have to stop a ear in the Lane of traffic means some small measure of danger and congestion, particularly in streets which bear trams. Visiting, or eveu resident, motorists not familiar with tram stopping-places have enough to contend with because of road conditions generally without having to give attention to poles bearing notices set among verandas. Notices should be set well out at right-angles to as well as parallel with the verandas, so that motorists may read easily and clearly what they are supposed to obey. As a general rule, the average motorist wishes to abide by the city by-laws, and he should be assisted in carrying that into effect. Along Lambton Quay, particularly, are several instances to be found of signs which are not very helpful to motorists. It is cause for comment that the socalled safety 7 zone for pedestrians has I not been adopted in Wellington, as it

has in other centres, .notably iu Dunedin and Christchurch. True, the majority of Wellington’s busiest streets are too narrow to lend themselves to the safe, efficient installation of safety zones, but there are one or two thoroughfares where their use would be of great service to pedestrians as well as motorists. The uew traffic regulations demand that people waiting for trams shall not wait on the roadway. At the tram stop in Lambton Quay, opposite the War Memorial, the thoroughfare is wide enough to allow of the installation of a raised zone for the convenience of waiting tram passengers. This would overcome a serious traffic difficulty at this point, because vehicular traffic would travel between the zone and the footpath and not have to halt while trams are halted to pick up or set down passengers. At present, as trams approach, passengers begin to move out from the kerbing, and sometimes two and three trams are at this stop at the same time. It would be much wiser to provide a zone in the interests of the passengers and allow vehicular traffic to move on. No doubt there are other places where zones should be installed in Lambton Quay, if not elsewhere, and it is a wonder that the civic authorities have not given the matter consideration already.