CROSSING PLACES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 32, 8 February 1927, Page 10

CROSSING PLACES

THE FORGOTTEN BYLAW

NOBODY'S BUSINESS

MORE CONTROL NEEDED

It is now some weeks since anything was done in. the way of painting more "Pedestrians cross here" lines across city roadways, and the special indestructible paint used for the markings is well faded and gone. This special paint, it may lie remarked, is indestructible in a comparative sense, very like the material that one's tailor insists will never wear out. Shortly, however, really lasting traffic lines may be laid down, for the porcelain studs, ordered several months ago by the City Council, are now on hand; they are to be let into the road, flush with the surface, and should-outlast many coats of paint. Being' whiter than well-worn paint, they should present a handsome appearance, much more so than paint, and being of porcelain they will certainly cost more than paint, but will they be of any greater value to pedestrians and road users than paint, the guidance value of which is almost exactly nil? The only people who seem to have paid any attention to pedestrian crossing markings were the men who painted them, and they had to pay attention, otherwise they could not have made them straight. Presumably that work ■was done by members of, or under the direction of, the traffic department, acting, of course, on council instructions, and immediately the lines were down the department's interest ended. A good many pedestrians use the marked crossing places, because they iead directly from footpath to footpath, but they would tread that path in any case. More people wander across the roadway as the spirit moves, and nothing comes of it, unless, maybe, an ambulance call, or, alternatively, an inquest. There is a bylaw which insists that pedestrians, in their own interests, and in the interests of road users, shall cross at marked places only, but it is like many more good bylaws, never enforced, either by-traffic officers or police, and completely ignored by everyone else as well. ' • '

TRAMS STOP HERE,

-Not only is the bylaw not enforced, but there is such negative co-operation between various departments of the Corporation that city trams at several points stop squarely across the crossing places, effectively discouraging those who might otherwise obey the pedestrians cross here" rule. As there are no trams in Cambridge terrace, the Corporation bus stop is so placed that buses block the crossing, and elsewhere about the city, where neither trams nor buses suit, motor vehicles may be confidently relied upon to take over their function.

It is possible that the now porcelain stud lines will be so arresting that they will demand recognition by pedestrians, by tram and bus drivers, and by motorists; if not, at least they will be expensive.

Traffic officers and police alike appear to be agreed that no benefit will ever be obtained from crossing places until the bylaw is enforced, but the traffic office is manned by a skeleton stair, and the police confine their attention almost solely to traffic control at_ four intersections. There is no certainty that the new, expensive markings will be as farcical as the old lines, but there is a great probability that that will be so.

PEDESTRIANS TAKE THEIR CHANCE.

Points duty men elsewhere control pedestrians as well as vehicluar traffic, but m Wellington that is not done. The pedestrian looks after himself, and gets £lerI er l^T 1 Sllape as »-general rule. The attitude to this matter appears to be that "it can't be done," which attitude suggests that Wellington traffic offers peculiar and special difficulties

EVENING FATALITIES

PROHIBITED.

i Another point which pedestrians and drivers should note is that on'no'account must accidents be allowed to hap?w T tht City after 6 P- m -> for at that hour the points control ceases, even upon Friday evenings, when car traffic is particularly heavy, and, on account of city lighting, much more dangerous than durmg daylight. It is obvious, however, that the few men upon the traffic inspector's staff cannot cope with tins night work, already overloaded as tnloT Y h P**s**" Place troubles and general supervision.