PEDESTRIAN’S ON ROAD.

Matamata Record, Volume XVI, Issue 1443, 20 July 1933, Page 4

PEDESTRIAN’S ON ROAD.

THE KING’S HIGHWAY.

“ Keep to the Right ” Rule.

A suggestion that pedestrians on roads habitually walked on 'the wrong side,'' going with 1 the traffic instead of walking towards it so they could be seen, was made at the monthly meeting of the Matamata Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Griffiths commented that he had always been under the impression that the regulations laid down that pedestrians should walk on the right hand side of the road, and facing the oncoming traffic, but he had been informed lately by someone who should know that there was nothing laid down on the point in New Zealand.

Mr. H. E. Schofield (president) said that he had found this out while engaged in a recent legal case. It was apparently the law in the Old Country that pedestrians should walk towards the oncoming traffic, but the point had not yet been tried out in New Zealand courts. In a recent case a judge had said that while such might be the rule in England, it was not generally known in New Zealand. Therefore, as the case he was judging did not revolve around this point, the judge said that he would not care to express an opinion on the matter, though the point had been mentioned by one of the counsel. So far the point had not been the subject of a legal case in New Zealand. The rule was becoming more generally known in this country, however, and it was very likely that it would be an important factor in some case at an early date. Mr. A. N. Crawford thought that the rule insisting on pedestrians walking towards oncoming traffic was in a li'st of regulations issued by the A.A.A. a few months ago. Mr. Schofield replied that might be so, but he thought it would be merely a suggestion by the A.A.A. He felt it would come in time, and also one with reference to a pedestrian being on the road when there was a good footpath alongside. The road was at present regarded as the King’s highway and pedestrians had as much right on the road as motorists. It was a relic of old times when there was no footpaths. Mr. L. Flower: It is only commonsense to meet the oncoming traffic.

Mr. Wrigley: Yes, but I do not think one in fifty do it. The matter then dropped.