TRAFFIC OBSERVANCES

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 122, 19 November 1929, Page 10

TRAFFIC OBSERVANCES

AFOOT AND AWHEEL

BOTH AT FAULT

"We are all pedestrians during the day," said Mr. B. L. Jone3 at the annual meeting of tho Wellington Automobile Club last night. '' We have then to crave the protection of the traffic officers and the police. The position of the pedestrian traffic has become so appalling, so acute, that a solution should not be delayed any longer. It took me twelve minutes to cross Willis street to-day." A voice: "Were you thirsty?" "From the time I left my office no assistance was given to pedestrians. It is a very grave matter indeed. (Laughter.) I would like to impress the fact on the committee that a man, let alone a woman or children, has a tremendous problem in crossing at Perrett's Corner. Many of us have had to rush from the kerb to assist a woman, old or young. It is not safe for anyone to cross certain streets in Wellington at any hour of the day. What suggestions can we offer? "Many motorists use Manners and Willis streets, whether to merely show off their new cars, or out of bravado, Ido not know. Motor salesmen parade up and down that part of the city, crossing King's Chambers, Stewart Dawson's, the Bank of New Zealand, and Perrett's Corners. As pedestrians we need protection, but as motorists we need the assistance that can come only from the pedestrian." The chairman (Mr. E. A. Batt) thought that the City Council was making very good headway in traffic control by placing the automatic signals at Courtenay place. "I believe it is working as well as any crossing in any city I have been in," he said. "Wellington has peculiar problems with narrow streets and configuration. The trouble ;s that the motorists are controlled, but the pedestrians are not. Whether there are policemen or automatic signals on the corner the pedestrian should watch them. In America when they were introducing the traffic signals so many were killed that they had to take a very drastic stand with pedestrians to save them from themselves. I believe the time will come when our authorities here will take a very firm stand with them. It is a fixed habit with many people to take the long angle across at Courtenay place, instead of taking the shorts'- and right angled way.' It is a very general failing. As pedestrians we must usp just tho same amount of com- ' on sense as the motorist."

"It is only by education on the part of the authorities that we can bring about a better state of things. It is a question whether a wide street is any safer than a narrow one. Narrow streets are no disadvantage if everybody controls themselves, but that state of affairs can only be reached by suitable propaganda and education. No city in the world has more difficult problems than London, but 'here fewer people comparatively to population are killed than in New Zealand, which has an unenviably large percentage to population.

"There is the stupid motorist and the stupid pedestrian. In America there is a surprising number of motorists who have struck trains not at the engine end, but amidships, or even the guard's van at the end. It seems to me that there is just as much stupidity on the part of motorists as there i amongst pedestrians. We can look to the time when pedestrians will realise that they have not all the right to tho road. I have repeatedly seen pedestians walk across with a 'wait till I pass' look. In America such people do not get much consideration. They are known—and killed—as 'jaywalkers '."

Mr. Jones made the novel suggestion that the tram stops at the "Evening Post," Schneideman's, the Duke of Edinburgh, gmi Perrett's corners be taken away, as there was no need for so many stops in such a short stretch of street.'

Nobody , supported this, Mr. A. J. Patterson remarking that one had to be careful in making such suggestions. He did not think the idea feasible, nor did he see any reason why one could not cross at Perrett's corner if he crossed Manners street and then Willis street. He believed that traffic control would only really be achieved by education in the schools. The adult man (or woman)" would continue to rrake straight' for the shop in view whatever the regulations, as they were too old to learn.

Mr. L. A. Edwards stressed the fact that accidents in relation to registrations of motorists had decreased all over the world by 20 per cent., due to the better control of both pedestrians and motorists. '"' ;

The great majority of accidents, said Mr. I. V. Wilson, were due to careless driving. If everybody who came to a corner anticipated meeting something there, 25. per cent, of thi 50. per cent, of accidents, due to carelessness, would disappear. Cutting corners was the cause of the accidents