CONTROL WANTED

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 136, 13 June 1927, Page 10

CONTROL WANTED

FOR SAFER STREETS

BYLAW ENFORCEMENT

[WALKERS AND DRIVERS

(By '.'Emergency Brakes.")

„'..', During •'■ the past three' days seven ,:. serious street accidents liave occurred, '■ '"• arid no one person can say just how many mishaps that by great good fortune were not serious accidents occurred in the' same time. Why? The -, pedestrian blames the motorist, the.mo- .... torist the pedestrian, or the tramway motorman—there has been a regular ■■■■ ■ series- of tram-motor collisions recently •'•••■>■' —and generally no one gets any further -: ■' forward in removing the steadily in- "*'"- creasing street accident risk. '?''. The continual risk is contributed, to :;■.;,, occasionally by the motorist (for only \-- occasional motorists take chances) very '■,".,'.l frequently by the pedestrian, and con- .«.-,'' -tinually by the lack of adequate traffic „;-,., ebntrol. It is this lack of control which gives the occasional motorist his ■••■ ■ chance to get away with risks, and '-*-."" which allows thes pedestrian to take ""*;. his particular risk and an ambuv;;' lance ride to the Hospital. !^. TOO MANY COOKS. '■^Z, On paper,. Wellington's traffic control ~~-z. should be excellent, for Wellington has '■'" both and traffic, officer supervision, but in fact it is this dual control which makes for the weakness of ■■"' the whole. Arguing, no doubt, that V".VJ as there is police control there is no / „. need for a larger city traffic inspectorate, the City Councill keeps its staff ;'. down to mere skeleton force, and actki./> ing-upon the agreement between itself <,^ and the council for points control, the "■~.. Police Department controls (vehicular) "' traffic at points and leaves bylaw mat-. ■• terg'to city traffic officers. ' That the police do not concern themselves in bylaw matters—except in eases where breaches have been f0110w- ,., - ed by serious consequences—is made ,—.. abundantly clear:on "bylaw days" at '■~: pa.6 Magistrate's Court, for practically ■.?<* every action so "taken is instituted by .;...:" tfe^city traffic officers, - ■ ■ :■: "PEDESTRIANS' OBLIGATIONS. ■„,'■"...;,-.ln '.the-'/opinion of motorists street accidents will continue inevitable un- ".,'.->. til .the rights of both pedestrian and _.;„. motorist are so clearly defined and -?r: ieepgnised that penalties enforced forl -r.j, infringements on either side will be '■'-'■ accepted as a matter of course. At present,, it .was pointed out to a "Post" representative to-day by several m0t- .,,.,,. orists. spoken to on the subject, that, ,^ ; -, in the absence of.unified control of street j ..,;,-,traffic, the rights of neither pedestrian ;vr p nor. motorist were definitely underu; , stood, and certainly were not ob- _-,;; served. .".' . . .,, '..- ■'•Motorists are quite satisfied with the principle of police control of'street i-X traffic,?.' said Mr.. H. J. Stott, secre- "" -tary of the Wellington Automobile '";'■!,Club. "As h-o matter of fact, Auckland is one of the few places in the world where point-duty is not carried out by the police, but we think that .'j,_ f tho. police, control of the pedestrian * traffic should be more enforced. Often the officer on point duty gives a motor- .' -3st~the|. signal, to move on when the , load, is clear, but a pedestrian, or sev--eral of them, disregarding tho fact vi that the motorists have thus been given -■'. the use of the road by the controlling """' authority, walk across in front of the •",'!* car.- If motor traffic is held up to al- "*' loyr the | pedestrians to pass, then pedes- .,.,„' Wian traffic'should bo stopped while the . . • motorists- are given . the road ..for-, the „.^' time being.'; This should be made a rule -;v;i of traffic, and infringements of it „,' should be penalised. At present mot- * ■■'- orists abide by the ruling of the point .■■>.■ officer, and pedestrians do not. In ■ ' some Continental countries pedestrians '?'■' who wilfully disregard the traffic laws, :'"■' even if injured as the result, are taken ri in- charge and fined heavily. .;, EDUCATING THE PUBLIC. -.:;. "This is not a new question. The Automobile Association has frequently written to the City Council to undertake an ; education campaign of pedes- . trians in street traffic, to set out pro- ■;'". per crossing places, and to see that '.. "people cross the streets at right angles w . 4 ' only, but the City Council has taken j. v ,; no notice whatever of these sugges- *.~;, -..turns, except to paint white lines at ,»n'.. some spots, which fade out in a week ■..:■. or two. We havo interviewed the By- - 4v - laws Committee on more than one oeca- ■* " 6ibn, and we have even asked to have ;,.':■ it made.an offence for a pedestrian to .":: cross anywhere except at the proper places, which is the procedure •,;;^' on:the Continent. Wo havo also asked l"..[ t that crossing Willis street, Manners i street, and Courtenay place, except at ..!.. right angles, bo made an offence. We . [,-„ think'the right of the pedestrian to tho -middle of the road should be curtailed, ..both in the interests of pedestrians, „.,.',. and.,also of the motorists. Wo know -■••- there is a great deal of misconception -' '■ of _ the aims of both parties. What inotj- orists as a body are chiefly concerned " with is the safety of the pedestrian, "" and that can be assured only by some regulations properly framed and enforced ■by ;which pedestrians would be informed of their duties and responsi--,■'.."MMtiea, which they posses in common ',"'".: "with motorists, though; many of them ;;;;-,_ think they do not." ..., Another motorist pointed out that _ the.City Council did nothing, because „..', the control of street traffic was left the hands of the police, but that . ; the., latter, while attending very satis- ,■■<:•' iactorily on. the wnole to the vehicular .-■traffic, had bo far laid down no regu- .'. lations. regarding pedestrian traffic. ~;; - One or other of these bodies should assume the responsibib'ty of drawing up proper regulations.

THREE FOB WHOLE CITY.

-•; Even with no moro than three, some- ■ '-"■• times four, traffic officers about the city .'.'.','... i-~tller c areno more available-^-the by--law list has lately been running up to '/.'- the sixties, with' long waiting lists be,.'....sides; It is obviously impossible for , three or four men to cover traffic sup- ..;. ervision in the city, let alone the sub,~..,nrbs, and that these officers do return „-,„ to their office with sufficient notes to ... Yfiatrant the laying of as many as sixty •■••- informations in one week indicates that traffic is getting rather out of hand. That sixty cases are proceeded with certainly, does not mean that these officers saw merely sixty breaches of traf- ■ -fie rules or other bylaws, but that out ; of the lot sixty were considered by them sufficiently serious to warrant """■ action.

...'. More supervision -would lead, at first, more prosecutions, later to fewer . : . prosecutions, and steadily decreasing, „, instead of steadily increasing, risk to .;,.,, everyone, concerned. But traffic eon'::trol is not a matter of prosecution at " all;, guidance is of much greater im- ... .v.portance, with prosecution as tho cor-'-"-rect treatment to the person to whom *'"; guidance is of no use. At present -"■guidance is at an absolute minimum; there is no one to do the guiding, except ,'"in a hit or miss fashion. ;t'.T; Particularly is guidance altogether .'.,;.",'. missing so far as pedestrian traffic is j ■.„';., concerned. There are -bylaws, but the <■ - pedestrian knows nothing of them —and - :" in the present state of the book of by- ■•»•, laws he simply cannot find out-^-the •'■; points duty constable is, plainly enough, "•■ not concerned in any degree by the •■; wishes of the pedestrian to get from one | point to another, and the overworked .'' skeleton of a city staff does not attend . ' '.to pedestrians becauso it simply hac aot „., time.

„:; The real blame for "Wellington's too frequent street' accidents lies chiefly ■with those who do not see that the daily t}sk is lemffyeti 1% sugeryißiott.