SANDY'S CORNER

Wanganui Chronicle, 20 December 1950, Page 4

SANDY'S CORNER

STREETS AND THEIR IMPORTANCE. "And which street do you consider is I the most important in your city?” asked a new arrival of us yesterday morning. We proudly threw out our chests and were about to say Victoria Avenue. But we hesitated. We through* quickly of Trafalgar Place. I Why? Because it is the street where | they take things off you at one corner and half-way down give them back to you. On the corner of Trafalgar Place is that golden building, so linked to Nelson’s name, where the Land and Income Tax Department smilingly takes your taxation, and down a bit in that same street is the Social Security Department, where the lads and. lassies smilingly give you back—or at least give somebody something back—something from that which Trafalgar Buildings has taken from i you. Unfortunately neither department really knows its Nelson, he who was bind in one eye and conveniently turned that blind eye when it was Important to d 0 so. These two departments of Trafalgar fame have two eyes and they are both open, day and night, not some time, but all the time. Yes, Trafalgar Place is Wanganui’e most important street in this modem world —there man sees modern social justice at work, the taking from I hose who have to give to those who have not! PEDESTRIAN CROSSINGS. PARKINGS AND ALL THAT! I We have had some attention ! focussed these last few weeks on car parkings, or lack of them, in Wan- ■ ganui, or pedestrian crossings and i traffic conduct generally in our ' streets. Somebody has suggested i parking cars in the centre of the i streets and leaving a lane on either ' side for traffic to move up and down. Somebody will come in soon with a suggestion that pedestrians and motor vehicles change places—pedestrians to the open road, and the cars to the foo'paths. But parking, joking apart, :is a serious business’ We suggest ■ somebody float a company, dig a big underground parking area and charge a small fee to park cars; have lifts to lower and raise them up. About pedestrian crossings, we think some pedestrians abuse them and will con- ! tinue to abuse them, just as much as motorists do! Another thing, pedestrian crossings are in the wrong places—'oo near corners. Motorists have to look to the crossing and the corner at the same time and they find it a bit of a task, especiali> T if the motorist hanpens to be a bit of “an old woman behind the wheel.” Wanganui could lead the way by putting all pedestrian crossings well away from corners. One chap has just rung up to s-.y that the right hand rule could just as easily be applied to pedestrians as to motorists, and should be instituted at pedestrian crossings. Trouble with that is so many pedestrians are just “dense,” and they mightn’t know which hand is which. We are a pedestrian most of the time, and things move so fast nowadays that we haven’t got lime to remember which is the right hand, which the left! Anyway, something will have to be done soon about parking. Too many aro barking about parking to park action any longer.