SAFETY ZONES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20536, 11 October 1928, Page 7

SAFETY ZONES.

MAKING THEM SAFE. NEW DESIGN FOR MELBOURNE. :From Ocr Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, October 4. So many motor fatalities have occurred within Melbourne’s safety zones that the officers of the City Council have been engaged in devising means to make safety zones really safe. Under the existing system an area of the road close to the chief tramway stops is enclosed in a broad white line, a ( s is the case in Sydney. In Melbourne this seems to have given the people a false sense of security, and more than one death has occurred because a pedestrian has ceased to exer cise reasonable care once within the zone. Then again cars out of control, or even those driven by drunken motorists, cannot be prevented from entering a safety zone, simply by a white line. It was clear, therefore, that some other method would have to be devised, or the safety zone system abandoned altogether. It has been decided that the measure of safety extended to occupants of the zones must be independent of the drivers of vehicles. In future the end of the zone nearest to the incoming traffic will be protected by a large concrete pillar with a massive base extending the full width of the zone. The pillar will bear lights at both the apex and the base, and will remain illuminated throughout the night. Its object will be at once to define the limit 01 the zone, and to prevent any vehicle, whether out of control or not, from invading the area set apart for pedestrians. The pillai will be sufficiently massive to stop any vehicle that might be driven against it. The remainder of the zone will be marked by porcelain or bright metal studs, and the far end, which should not require anj protection, will bear a luminous “ button ”to define it. These zones are to be placed in the main traffic arteries leading from the city proper. For use within the city the officers recommend a raised type of safety zone with protecting “lighthouses” at the traffic end where the street illumination is considered insufficient. Those raised areas with the additional safeguard of an iron railing, are considered to be the safest form of protection, but they are too expensive to place othei than the busiest places within the city proper It is planned to place such zone at every stopping place in the city area. Sixty safety zones of the type adopted for outside the city will cost £6OOO.