SAFETY IN THE CITY STREETS

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 223, 15 June 1921, Page 6

SAFETY IN THE CITY STREETS

THE CROSS-OVER SYSTEM TAXI-MEN URGE ADOPTION IN WELLINGTON The system of cross-overs in the principal streets of all cities is being made a necessity by the number of accidents, fatal and otherwise, that are being recorded in those cities where the practice doas not prevail. This was the contention of a delegation of taxi-drivers, who asked this paper yesterday to urge upon the City Council the advisability of at once adopting the system, which, it is claimed, has been so successfully tried in largo cities in America and England. One of the taxi-men pointed out the grave dangers that exist in Courtenay Place, which, ho said, was admittedly the part of the city where the majority of more serious accidents had occurred in the past, and where they 'were likely to occur in the future unless something drastic was done in the way of directing pedestrian traffic into defined channels. Three of the dangers that assail the motorist and pedestrian at Courtenay J’laoe wore stated to be as under :— (1) The difficulty of negotiating that part of the road between the northern «nd of Kent Terrace and the beginning of Courtenay Place (on the northern f side). There the motorist has not only to steer clear of trams passing in or out in six different ways, but there is also a, stream of pedestrians who finish their tramway journey at Courtenay Pino® and make their way on foot to either Kent or Cambridge Terraces or Majorlbanks Street. In addition, too, there are tramcars, backing and filling fr the morgue siding, and perhaps a couple in waiting at the bottom of Kent Terrace, all of which means congestion of traffic at a spot where there has been little or no control. After Mrs. Black was killed, a constable was stationed at this junction for a time, but was removed after a few months. It is understood that the police authorities are to maue it a spot for a point-duty man. (■>) The difficulty that confronts the motorist in having to cross to his right aide after entering Courtenay Place from the eastern end. As he is only allowed to enter that thoroughfare on the northern side of the plantation, Ims as soon as the latter obstruction is passed, to cross over the two tramway tracks to place himself within the law. But at times ho is not able to cross, owin'- to a continuity of tramoars, and, «s hl has to keep moving he has to eteer a course dawn the middle of t

TO (3) Tho very lar ®° number of people •who desiring to reach the section end etop’ walk over Courtenay Place at any and’all sorts of angles, from the nortl - “n Bide, and so add to their own and the motorist’s peril just at the most dangerous spot in the city. , h If there was one section of footpatn, which should bo fenced or raiiod o , the taxi-men maintained, it was that Stion between Tory Street and Blair Street on tho northern side, and if crossover were marked at right angles at ?hose rtreZt intersections it would at once make for the safety of the Vjblw As things are at present added the delegation, people load the markets or shops on tho northern side and make their way across .Courtenay Place to the tram stop without contemplating tho risk they run and the many things the motorist has to think of in negotiating this danger zone.