SAFETY ZONES

Hokitika Guardian, 13 October 1928, Page 6

SAFETY ZONES

MAKING THEM SAFE. NEW DESIGN FOP MELBOURNE.. SYDNEY, October 4. So many motor fatalities have occurred within Melbourne’s safety zones that the officers ot the City Council have been engaged in devising means to make safety zones really safe. Un der tlie existing system an area ot the road close to the chief tramway stops i§ enclosed in a broad white line, as the case in Sydney. In Melbourne this seems to have given the people a false sense of security, and more than one. death lias occurred because a pedestrian has ceased to exercise 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 he devised, or the safety .zone system abandone altogether. It has been decided that the measure of« safety extended to occupants sbf the zones must be independent of F tlie drivers of vehicles. In future, the end of the zonest 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 (ipex and the base, and will remain illuminated throughout, the night. Its object , will-, be .at once to define the limit ot’./the,zone, and to prevent ai.n vehjple,whether out of control or not fron?•; invading (the mrea. ,set apart lor pede,strains... The pillar will be suffi- . cjiently massive to y stop any vehicle that might. .be driven against it. The Remainder of the zone will he marked by porcelain or bright metal studs, and the far endi; which should not require aiiy, 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 tlie officers a raised type of safety zone with protecting “lighthouses’’ at the traffic end where the street illumination is considered insufficient The raised areas, with the additional safeguard of an iron railing# are considered to be the safest form ol protection, but they arc too expensive to place at other than tlie busiest places within the city proper. It is planned |o place • such zones at .every stopping place in. the city area. Sixty, safety zones of the type adopted for outside the. city iyi.lL- cost £6OOO.- •