FIRST CHANGE

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 125, 29 May 1930, Page 21

FIRST CHANGE

PEDESTRIANS' RIGHTS >

NEW YORK DECISION

WHEELS MUST WAIT

The long-suffering and harassed pedestrian of New York City is about to come into his own. After decades of dodging —first the horse and carriage and then the automobile-he is to have a concession to what lawyers call his "civil rights, Bays Lewis Nichols in the "New York Evening Post." In other words, the City Fathers and the police have taken notice' of his painful position, and in the near future he will have' a chance to scuttle across the street in a more leisurely manner. There are classes of pedestrians just as there arc classes of deer and racehorses. Some of them get pleasure from dodgmi; : into the middle of the street, picking'holes •in traffic, and trying a line plunge to the other isiile.- Some of them want to got j horne1 and, -streets intervening . between them and the subways, they cross the streets- Some of them really want to take a walk. Ou paper this sounds like madness, but it is occasions ly done, ihese walkers are the .hardy pedestrians; they are of the stock that moved west down the Ohio '200 years ago. - . Nor, indeed, is that all. Sonic of - the pedestrians are feminine; they, see^ hats in the windows across .the thoroughfare.-. Others of them, the young, play a kind ot hockey in the street and seem to consider it a neat bit of .work to. body-check the opposing wing into a passing taxicab. _ finally there are nurses with baby carriages. These are the, oniy pedestrians who get away, with it; they cross the streets with confidence. . ' . ■:'•■■-, his Own fault. The reasons why the New York pedestrian finds himself in his present state of humbleness and spryuess are almost as varied as the types themselves. Most ot the reasons arc the doings and operations of others and are quite outside Jus -own agency or control; but it must be said in fairness that the rest can be' laid' only at his doorstep. If the pedestrian will hurry —will fry to scamper across a. rapidlymoving river of sixty horse-power- engines —the results are his own fault. . " The question of right .of way : has long bene troublesome. In the old days the pedestrian and the motorist had equal claim to the use of the road. . And as legs were. created long before stream-line bodies, the pedestrian had the further right of priority. In theory; he can now claim the road everywhere except in certain regions that have legislated to the contrary. He has been advised,. however, to go slowly in claiming his bit of concrete'; frequently he has not heeded the warning. "Stop" and "Go" signs have but fanned his desire.for his rights. Therehave been results in statistics —and hospital beds. If he is lucky, the pedestrian still has the legs that gave him the priority. . BOTH RESPONSIBLE. Iv his last report the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles, Mr. Charles A. Harnett, eaid that 52 per cent, of the year's accidents were due to. cars striking pedestrians, and that ''pedestrians and motorists alike' are responsible." Jay walking was, responsible for 449 deaths in the total of 2960, and attempting to cross the street from behind parked cars caused 148. Thb Courts have taken up the problemat considerable length. Wise eyes have read briefs and learned jurists have written decisions. About a year ago the United States District Court of \Appeals said, for example, that (he pedestrian who started to go across the street while a green light was burning had the right of ■way until he reached the other kerbeven though the light changed in the middle of the journey. This was a fair decision; but, judging i'rbra the crowds along Broadway, the opinions of Federal district Courts are not widely studied. A pedestrian who sets out under an auspicious green light may find himself executing a step not unlike that of the whirling dervish, hefore he reaches the other side. At the first flicker of fiery red the. cars and trucks bear down on him. The pedestrians' opinion of the drivers of New York's 1,000,000 automobiles is not high. They suspect most drivers of being in league either with the physician, the t Coroner, the attorney, or all three. They jump out of the way, they run and dodge, and gome of them —those more recently arrived in the city—still have enough spirit to put their thoughts in words.' "NEVER HITS ANYONE/ There is , nothing quite so lordly as a , taxi driver, and probably ■no • better chauffeur can ,be found. Regarding the pedestrian problem, however, these drivers have their own ideas. The first is that

the pedestrian should keep out of the way, but when' tlity are .faced with statistics that prove motorists are wrong at least half of the time, they blame it on the other drivers. A good taxi operator never hits anyone, they say. A traffic officer's opinion of the entire question bears out the general legend that a policeman's lot is not a happy one-y-he thinks that both pedestrian and driver are wrong For many years there has iieen the standard joke about the unfriendly talks between officers and drivers; but, beneath it all, the police are not rabid partisans of the pedestrian. They hold that'-walkers should watch the lights us well as the chauffeurs and they feel that pedestrian-control is the solution. This, however,, is difljcult. The experiment in "Tiinqs Square a year back is still remembered. With an officer on each of the four, corners, and. one in the middle of the street, the pedestrians were held in check.ior the proper, lights. The police being present, if'is good; but when only the..honqui;.system holds a scurrying populace' on the curb,' the whole sitxiation returns to normal. '- The dodgers dodge. To have five police for each corner -is obviously impracticable; it would take an army to guard Broadway. FOR WALKERS ONLY. Despite all'this, great things are in the air. The pedestrian lxiii gets at least a little time that is all his own —a tribute to the priority-"of-legs. For it was recently decreed by the- New .York Board of Estimate, and Apportionment that new signals .be; arranged so as to flash red in all four directions at once. This red period will ,b,e for the pedestrian .'one; all the rest of the. world, will keep silent ■ These' periods—two live-second spaces in each traffic cycle—are designed to clear the. street.:, They are not long enough for even, the most nimble, to leave- one curb and reach the other, und that is not their-purpose; They are just to enforce the'-.decision* of the , United States District; Court" of;, Appeals already men tioned. They'will flash red on all sides, because-" it has been learned that drivers consider no.light at all—the present ar ;rahgement—the same as green. : This is New York's latest contribution to the welfare of the pedestrian.