TRAMCARS AND STREET ISLANDS: CONTROL OF THE PEDESTRIAN• The Editor, TEE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
Page 21
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
1.1334.1 Sir,-I hope you will allow rue to make mention of a certain point which has oeeurred to ine in connection with an article which appeared iii the issue of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR dated 2nd April, on pages 10e-7.
The article was entitled " Is the Street Tramway Doomed?" and it mentioned the increase in the number of refuges or islands in the centte of the streets for the safety of pedestrians, and of the effect
in increasing congestion at certain points. The point that seems to have been overlooked is that the number of refuges which were removed to make way for the tramlines at the time of their installaticn, espeeially in London at important crossings, was very large. The irony of the whole position is that the borough councils—Hackney and Southwark, for instance-. are now attempting to remedy the faults of the L.0.0. by placing refuges of a temporary nature on the remaining portion of the road, quite regardless of other road users' rights. These refuges, as a matter of fact, are seldom used, because they are perforce not in direct line from one street corner to
another. The public will rick deviate from their direct line of progress in order to hop from kerb to island and from island to kerb in comparative safety. One suggestion which I would make may not be useless. I would advise that, instead of these refuges, small posts, each of them bearing the notice " Cross here opposite this post in a direct line" would be more useful. Drivers would then know where to expect pedestrians to cross the roads, especially the less nimble ones and children. The public would not then run about like sheep and get inextricably mixed up with the traffic, a, proceeding which is acoompanied with considerable sporting risk, but which is very confusing, and militates against proper traffic, control. Again, very busy thoroughfares and narrow pavements might be fenced in. This is the °lily remedy, and the only efficient splashguard. 'The fence should be built in sections, cheap, light and portable, and placed just far enough from the kerb to avoid wheel caps and the damage that might ensue from skids. The sections sliould be light and hinged, in order to allow carmen to load and unload when necessary.
As a practical driver, I would just like to add my protest concerning the growing insolence and bullying of the tram driver towards other road users. He is increasingly being made to feel the difficulty of his position on a railbound vehicle as the traffic gets thicker, and his only method of making progress at any considerable rate is, to his mind, to adopt a truculent and bullying attitude towards other users. Particularly is his behaviour dangerous at points and curves where one of the huge trams will swing round regardless of the fact that traffic is perhaps proceeding in a direct line on. its near side. That there are not more accidents from this cause is amasing. One of the worst examples in London is at Shoretiitch Station. Another is by the old Holborn Hall.
A practice that is growing amongst, train drivers is to stop to pick up and set down passengers at places other than those properly marked. I believe, as a matter of fact, that this is being encouraged by certain officials to hinder the competition of motorbuses, but it is a dangerous one to follow in traffic.—Yours
faithfully, LEIGHTON GREENE.