PEDESTRIANS FIRST

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 27, 31 July 1937, Page 8

PEDESTRIANS FIRST

The new policy of traffic control enunciated by the Mayor and fully endorsed by the City Engineer—that the safety of pedestrians shall be the prime consideration—will work out for the benefit of both walkers and motorists. Admittedly control is difficult now, and it will take some lime to introduce a complete remedy. Part of the trouble, however, springs from the fact that pedestrians have been largely left out of the scheme, with traffic lights not designed to guide them and pointsmen mainly occupied in moving the volume of wheeled traffic. It is not surprising that the pedestrians, left to look after themselves, have been a law. unto themselves. They have not known a discipline designed for their safety. If the problem is now approached from a new angle, it will not be hard to arrange a new order. Of course, the arrangements will need to be thorough, with light signals that can be understood without individual tuition, and adequate and safe crossings that there will be no excuse for ignoring. But when such"arrangements are made and the public have been educated to the observance of safety rules, there will be a marked sain also by the careful motorist. He will have to stop or slow down and give attention to pedestrian rights ou the road; but this will be much less troublesome to him than the hit-or-miss system that has ruled hitherto. And most motorists will recognise the wisdom of this for. the very sound reasons given by the Mayor: "We arc all pedestrians and, if we arc lucky, we arc the fathers of young pedestrians."