PEDESTRIANS AND TRAFFIC.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 May 1939, Page 4

PEDESTRIANS AND TRAFFIC.

TN neglecting finis far to put. down pedestrian crossings in the neighbourhood of its principal, street intersections, or to adopt any related safety device, Masterton. is very much m the minority amongst New Zealand towns of. its own size and, in the extent to which safeguards of the kind are effective, has been left behind by many smaller towns. The weight of opinion throughout the Dominion plainly is that pedestrian crossings and other methods of safeguarding pedestrians on routes much used bv motor traffic are well worth while. Up to the. present, Hie Masterton Borough Council has taken an opposite view, but on grounds that appear to be of a rather negative character.

Apparently in refusing to put down pedestrian crossings, a. majority of our Borough councillors have been swayed by the opinion expressed by some ol: their number that the ett.ee • would be to slow the'traffie without serving any useful purpose. This opinion is heavily discounted by the fact that pedestiian crossings have been approved in working experience in many towns throughout New Zealand. The essential consideration is not the slowing or expediting oi the traffic, but the saleguarding of life or limb. On the basis of practice and experience over a great part, of the Dominion there would appear to be excellent grounds for putting down, pedestrian crossings, not only at the principal street intersections in Masterton, but in Hie 'vicinity of schools. The question of installing traffic control lights,'though these are little used as yet except in the larger centres of population, is also ■worth going into.

We have had, on the whole, a happy immunity from serious street accidents in Masterton, but the volume ol motor traffic in our streets is already great and is growing apace and a continuance of immunity cannot be taken, for granted. fne Borough Council would be wise to give much more serious consideration than it has given as yet to the adoption of practicable safeguards.