THOSE WHO WALK

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 26, 30 July 1937, Page 10

THOSE WHO WALK

NEW TRAFFIC POLICY

PRECEDENCE AT CROSSINGS

ESSENTIAL TO SAFETY

The foundations of a new policy of traffic control in the city were laid last evening in the definite opinions expressed at a social evening tendered to the City Engineer, Mr. K. E. Luke. The policy recommended by the Mayor, Mr. T. C. A. Hislop, and fully supported by Mr. Luke as a result of his observations in Australian cities, is that members of the traffic inspectorate shall in future concentrate rather upon the safe passage of pedestrians through the city than upon the control of wheeled traffic, with pedestrians as of secondary importance. "We are hearing a great deal about traffic control, congestion of streets, dangers to pedestrians, and so on,' said the Mayor, "and although ours is not a big city these problems are serious and we have to work out a way by which we can arrive at a better control. "I think that the first persons we should consider all the time are not the motorists—the first people we should consider are the men, the women, and the children who go through the city on their feet, the pedestrians, and we should decide that every other activity of traffic should be subject to their safety in .the streets of the city. "We have heard a great deal of motor traffic in the last few years and there has been a great deal of propaganda from the motorists telling us what we should do and what we should not do, but we have heard little from pedestrians because they are not protected by any organised body. But we are all pedestrians, and, if we are lucky, we are the fathers of young pedestrians. "Our first job is to sec that the streets are made safe for pedestrians. The person walking has only the human body to resist accident; the motorist has his car and he is safe within it, and when he gets hurt it is usually his own fault. I think we should build up a policy of looking after the pedestrian." "STOLEN MY THUNDER." "Mr. Hislop has voiced the view which I -,vas going to express; he has stolen my thunder and has expressed himself forcibly and plainly," said Mr. Luke. "I agree with Mr. Hislop entirely that greater attention must be ' paid to the safety of the pedestrian ( in the -treets of Wellington." Mr. Luke outlined his visit to the main cities and towns and outstanding J engineering projects ir> Australia, but ' for the most part discussed traffic problems and the methods of control , adonted in various centres. , Whereas there was considerable , divergence of approach and method in some departments of municipal and . State activity in Australia, said Mr. , Luke, the administration of traffic had developed along a uniform line. , "In some instances the police admin- J ister traffic and make their own bylaws . and in others local bodies draw up j the bylaws," he said, "but what struck rue particularly was the uniform con- r sideration given to the pedestrian. E While the car is on the roadway the \ driver has other cars and drivers to consider, and while the pedestrian is ' on the footpath he is concerned with other pedestrians, but at intersections cars and pedestrians are on common 1 ground. 1 "If a car collides with another on a ; city street it is the motor body that t is damaged and there are repair shops i to look after car bodies, but too often 1 when a car collides with a pedestrian there is only the undertaker to look s after the human body. I was forcibly c impressed with the wonderful way in 1 which the pedestrian traffic is con- s trolled in Australia, and we can con- ' trol it well here, but there is the differ- 1 ence that whereas in Wellington there may be only three or four people t wanting to go over an intersection, ( ii. Sydney streets there may be sixty 1 people waiting to get across." s Mr, Luke said frankly that he had I not realised until he saw pointsmen ' at work in Sydney, Melbourne, and J other Australian cities that so little ' attention was paid to pedestrian safety [ in Wellington. Pointsmen were prone ' to lose sight of the pedestrian alto- 1 gether and to wave on motor traffic 1 whether pedestrians were over the ] crossings or not. He had experienced : that himself several times since his re- ; turn, but when he made that state- ', ment he was not criticising or finding , fault: the fact was that a system had gradually developed in Wellington of concentrating upon flow of motor traf- } fie and of paying far too little atten- 1 tion to pedestrian traffic. In Austra- j lian cities pedestrians were definitely j given precedence at intersections. i

Mr. Luke described in detail the methods of signalling generally followed and systems adopted for the setting out of crossing places and safety zones at tram stops, and discussed the change-over in several Australian cities from time-cycle light signals to tl.e traffic-actuated system, to which opinion was generally swinging. But, said Mr; Luke, Sydney did not use traffic lights in the busiest streets. There manual control was relied upon, with, always, insistence upon first consideration for the safety of the pedestrian.