THE WHITE SQUARE

Evening Post, Issue 119, 16 November 1925, Page 6

THE WHITE SQUARE

GOOD TO LOOK UPON.

Quite a few people have been' mystified by broad bauds of white paint care* fully, marked out upon the roadway at the intersection of Caba and Mercer '. streets to form a very precise and rather handsome square. Really there iv no mystery about it; it is a try-out of the pedestrian crossing place plan. The bands run from footway to footway, approximately the width of the footpath* and the idea is, of course, that pedestrians ehpuld follow those tracks, walking directly across the roadway instead of following in the footsteps (occasionally leading to the casualty ward of tho nearest hospital) of Mr... Mrs., aud Mist Jay Walker. There is perhaps-one weakness about a trial of the plan at that particular intersection; and that; is'that there is nothing"on the eastern'.nide of Cuba street which encourages one pedestrian in «. hundred to walk at an angle across the: ninterseotion. : One. or .two ; people each) hour might walk across > Cuba street to look in,at the fire brigade station doors, several might, cross to the wharf gates, but/all the others would pro- \\ bably bey on non-stop walks from one point on the western side of Cuba street > to another, point on the same side. Had the plan been tried out at the intersection of Cuba and Manners streets there could have been no guessing at what the white paint was for, for there it is plain that something is really needed to encourage people to wa.'k direct across the roadway. ■ However,/as the observance by. pedestrians of-the-white band rule at the Cuba-Manners street corner is just about 100 per cent, (because co few people want to cross there at an angle in any ca*e), the signal success there. recorded may prompt the application of the plan tq intersections ■where pedestrians do wander over in a style dangerous to themselves ; and nerve-racking'to the motorist. ...■■■ Sooner or later, upon the worst of the city crossings, Wellington will no doubt adopt the traffic rule of older cities, that pedestrians as weir as drivers mugt., wait: for the pointsman's signal. /