WAYS AND MEANS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 137, 7 December 1923, Page 8

WAYS AND MEANS

KEEP TO THE LEFT.

Whether the new footpath rule of Keep to the Left" is to come into operation immediately the bylaw operates, i.c as from 15th inst., has apparently yet to be decided, the argument for being that as' there is bound to be a certain' amount of confusion why not put it off. till after; the Christmas and New Year rush? . It; isa much'more simple matter to draw up the bylaw and to steer, it through' the .complicated courses of legal procedure than to^eri- ?£ Cc l il -and Wellington wiU find, as other towns have found, that if a man has been used to walking to the'right for year on year; he-.wifl walk to the right for quite a time after the rule is .lo:W,Wt-" He has to be reminded all day every day; for, quite a few days; .and two hundred or so signs*are now being prepared setting out' the altered rule,to be placed upon as many verandah posts in the main city streets. It is also proposed that the,centre; lines x>f footpaths should be clearly marked m^. whlte paint;or the..like: / ■ Those means, one, would think, should be ampte, but Auckland found that they, .were, not, and so detailed special footpath officers whose duty was to help aong with spoken advice. . .Sydney also, it is khoT, found street signs rather disappointing, and set about bringing tie new^uie home .by casing onion■t- v i ,dp sPecial • footpath duty, which lay however, not in the giving bfu ln, m, erely talking straight ahead,, to the left, and keeping on walking,, whether- or no they riet folk steering to the right. :It is stated that they^ .became .thoroughly;, expert in avoiding mjury from severe collisions, and that every man. they bumped became a convert. '

In WdWton, of course, it may not be so_ difficult a matter, to enforce the rule, for the. reason that at present citizens have an open mind on the question, and walk much- as. the mood 'strikes tnem. . : " r -