DEATH ON ROADS

Hokitika Guardian, 10 September 1932, Page 6

DEATH ON ROADS

HIGH SPEED TRAFFIC

'suggestions TO REDUCE

ACCIDENTS

Every form of artificial transport creates new perils. When men lirst took to riding instead, of walking, a col-tarn, percentage of riders broke tneir necks, Trains, 'ships, v and

aeroplanes all have their casualty lists. Our present . horrified preoccupation .. ith the casualty lists of the roads is due in the first place to , their length, and'in the second to .a conviction that; very substantial reductions are posuible. If the annual deaths are averaged, between ten, and twenty people are daily killed on the roads, irrespective; of- the far larger number who are temporarily or permanently crippled in road accidents. No hunmane person tan .contemplate this slaughter unmoved. No intelligent nation should confront the records in a spirit of inertia. 1 ;

Our present almost complete failure to grapple with the. problem is characteristic our, national lethargy in the teeth of a‘ novel situation. Our roads originated as forest tracks, trodden out by the feet of pedestrians,, and need by no other traffic. The horseman in due course inherited tliefn; they suited him as well as they suited the pedestrian and his additional speed imported no' element of peril. In time the wheeled vehicle ai rived, and a little widening of the tracks . met every fresh neech The four-hofs'ed ocac-h produced the turnpike,'but it was neither very fast uoi very, quiet, and it added little if a 1 y danger. Anon the bicycle appeared; this new vehicle was fast and silent, and' for a time; there was mirth talu of “scorching,” and the police used to prosecute cyclists for speeding. W tho public eetled down when it real ised that those light, narrow wl'cles S:lclom killed anybody but their 'one riders, arid that public'jumpines S was mainly due, to nerves startled by. the ctealtliy approach of these quiet machines.

’ Finally, the mbto'r-car entered the" '•'traffic, but it developed so slowly tlia the nation has hardly yet realised that "a traffic revolution lids been ’launched, jlost . people who discus® the p'ropbm betray the fact that pedestrian. lights farm the entire background of . their minds.. The reads were original I; traced by pedestrians for pcdcpiviins to walk upon ; and ,this, fact is regarded as determinative. If some icimt produced a proposal for pedes:-, : aus tr. be given right to hike along our rail road tracks, lje lyould be esteemed niad. But a .railroad track, though, if provides uncomfortable walk.ng, is far safer for pedestrians .than tin average main road; at least one know,, •exactly when© the trqiri wilt run ; on. -andr-ik comes at .lengthy intervals. On the road motor-cars travel on the aveiage as fast as local trains, and sometimes L cist fast : as "express trains; "they occupy any portion of the road at tieir pleasure; they may arrive at anyr momeri, singly or in squadrons, and from any direction ; and they may be almost inaudible) especially if a strong wmci is blowing in the face of the pedes triad. If is therefore extreme follj to walk oil any road which carriejs heavy motor-car traffic. But we com pel everybody to adventure: his tedder person againet 1 these speeding ton, cf steels. On many rural roads w| provide no -footwalk. Where a footwalk 'is built,'the pedestrian is not 'penalised for preferring to walk in the roadway. Many of the newer roads are complete, except for the sidewalk which is left so rough that no tenderfooted person would clream of using it. In cities ail'd? towns streets must be crossed; and even in London, where i deli crossing are more or less superintended and protected by traffi; officers) the organisation is ludicrous Frequently the point constable, permit a waiting mob'a moment or two.i which to dive across the Haymarket for example; and in inid-otreef on cannons into some eager person rusning from the' opposite side. There is of 'course, nothing to prevent an foolieh or self-confident person frmr attempting to thread the fast traffi cf say, Cockspur street, at any pymv of his own cheesing. We might a.f well allow a mothers’ meeting .to pic nic amidi.it the .points outside Euston. The time has come for us t.o realise that between motor traffic and pedestrian traffic a great gulf has been dug the two .forms of traffic are aa antipathetic as 'the leopardband the lamb. They ought to be sternly segregated. Ihiwould imply, amongst other changes the tardy denial , of all pedcstnar rights on main motor routes ; the prohibition of street-crossing except at fixed points; the provision of'fences or handrails for many pavements; tin provision of many underground 01 overhead foot-crossings; and the completion of proper footwnlks—nreferabl; raised—along aJI important rural roads.

'When th'rl pedestrian ha.-; been tar (lily safegunrdod, the motorist will stil. rorpiire protection; and this is a .far simpler matter. Since lie now travel,! at railway speeds, he should lie treated as trains are treated. Busy rondo should bo split centrally into one-way avenues, each strip being wide enougf for ii double stream, the slow stream and the fast stream. Bond junction ; should he reconstructed, n« funds allow and ’opportunities, occur. The reconstruction would include safeguards for crossings, an island to compel'all ea-s to slow down, a control —proljfthy of. ihe robot type." acting on "a time switch : and a system ol notide'boards definitely placing. iho ye-