THE PROBLEMS OF CITY TRAFFIC

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 153, 25 March 1938, Page 10

THE PROBLEMS OF CITY TRAFFIC

Dunedin’s control of pedestrian traffic has led to a controversy between the responsible authorities and the South Island Motor Union. One of the speakers at the half-yearly meeting of that body in Christchurch on Monday declared that there was nothing in the civilised world”—rather a sweeping assertion —‘'to equal the behaviour of the Dunedin pedestrians, who refused to move off the road on Friday night” (the late shopping night). Dunedin’s official reply was that, as it was a one-street city, it had difficulties peculiar to itself, but in any case observations in other centres had revealed conditions similar to those complained of. . The argument is simply a manifestation of the rivalry between pedestrians and motorists as to their respective road rights, This has become intensified by the enormous increase of motor traffic in the busier centres. Even in New. Zealand cities where there was some semblance of street-planning in the early days, and adaptation to the quite unforeseen but heavy demands of modern traffic conditions has been less difficult, traffic control has- become a serious problem, in cities like Wellington and Dunedin, whose main shopping thoroughfare in the beginning encircled the .beach on which the pioneers landed, the position is much more complicated. The footpaths along the shopping streets are not wide enough to carry the pedestrian flood, which overflows on to the highway, along the kerbs of which are parked cars, with a steady stream of tramway traffic in the middle. . Since it is impossible by waving a magician’s wand to transform our cities to suit modern traffic conditions, the obvious thing to do. is to endeavour to adjust those conditions to the circumstances of the case. The chief traffic inspector in Dunedin says that there are plen y. o side streets for parking motor-cars, but the point is that motorists “would not walk a yard.” As the populations of the cities increase, however, and the pressure of pedestrian traffic, especially on shopping nights, becomes heavier, it may become necessary to clear all motor and tramway traffic off the shopping streets for fixed periods, whether for transit via adjacent streets or for motor parking. This is don eon festive occasions, and there is no reason why it should not be done a regular thing on shopping nights when the pressure of traffic reaches the point at which the authorities will be positively compelled tci face the problem. Some say that point has been already reached in c - t lington. It certainly appears to have, been reached in Dunedin.