PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20219, 2 April 1929, Page 8

PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC.

It is inevitable that the question of control of pedestrian traffic should exercise the thought of the City Council and the general public. The increase of motor traffic necessarily entails consideration of the rights and duties of pedestrians. After some very casual discussion, the council has deferred action, referring the question back to a committee. Certain suggestions have been made concerning an alteration in the position of some safety zones, and changes of this sort will no doubt do something to remove disabilities suffered by foot passengers at busy intersections; but what is required is a much more thorough handling of the whole problem. It is all very well for one councillor to insist that people should wake up and look after themselves at crossings and for another to suggest that a little leading and education would bring about a better state of things. Such statements fail t> touch the heart of the matter. The fact is that pedestrians have been left too much to look after themselves and that more is needed than a little leading and education. Why should not the council do something more adequate than it has yet attempted in this connection 1 Surely, pedestrian traffic is as much its business as motor traffic, and if it does not leave wheel traffic to look after itself there seems to be no reason why foot traffic should not get at least equal attention. Pedestrians have had a little leading and education from the council—there

are notices posted at some intersections indicating that they must cross according to directions, and others, as on Grafton Bridge, instructing pedestrians to take the right-hand footpaths—but this leading and education has not been backed up by any effort, except for a few weeks long ago, to make it impressive. The notices remain, but they arc almost wholly disregarded because of . the half-hearted way in which the council has addressed itself to a very necessary duty, and they serve no other purpose than to give point to criticism of authorities who so obviously play at traffic control in this respect. For its own credit's sake, the council should either take down these scorned notices or see to it that they are observed. Nothing, it must be said, has so contributed to the present muddle in some busy thoroughfares as the posting of these notices, followed by a constant winking at their honouring in the broach. It has tended to spread a conviction that pedestrians can do just as they feel disposed at the moment, whatever the civic authorities may wish them to do. There is left little room to doubt as to who should wake up.