Evening star., 1939-08-28
Note on Pedestrians

letters from correspondents have
appeared on this page opposing or
disparaging the city's campaign for
greater traffic safety insofar as it
involves pedestrians. The burden
of these letters has been that the
pedestrian protection rules are the
result Of a scheme on the part of
organized motorists to put the re-
sponsibility for safety on those afoot,
that pedestrians are being discrim-
mated against in the enforcement
of safety laws, and that the regula-
tions are unreasonable in requiring
| pedestrians to wait for green lights.
1T is humiliating, to say the least,
and begets resentment to be required
to cross the street afoot under the
watchful eyes and distracting
whistles of policemen and Boy
Scouts" states one of these writer's.
"'* AS pedestrians we were immune
to- such interference until the adop-
tion of the pedestrian traffic regula-
ton"
The pedestrian rules, however
much support they have received
from organizations of motorists in
terested in general safety, have been
supported by The Star, not because
The Star favors one section of
the population as against another,
but in the mutual welfare of all
residents of the Capital This pro-
posal was the result of several years
OF steadily mounting statistics show
ing that more and more traffic
victims were pedestrians and that
comparatively fewer motorists were
being found guilty Of negligence in
connection with those accidents.
Independent checks by such agencies
as the National Safety Council,
which is an industrial rather than
motoring organization, showed
that in a predominant number
of these cases the fault lay with
the pedestrian himself. In only a
few OF the deaths each year was it
possible to obtain legal evidence
which would support the conviction
OF the motorist involved. The regu-
lations proposed and adopted repre-
sented the most advanced practice
in communities having better safety
records than Washington.
The matter of discrimination is
readily answered by the figures pub
lished each weekday on page B-1
of The Star under the heading
Traffic Record" On the day the
letter above quoted appeared the
following figures were included under
this heading: Motorists arrested,
230; pedestrians arrested for viola
ton of pedestrian control regula-
tions, II. The average number of
motorists arrested for failing to give
right OF way to pedestrians is from
five to six times as many as the
number of pedestrians arrested.
In the early days of the use of
traffic lights common defense made
by motorists accused of passing red
lights was that there was nothing
coming in either direction" Were it
possible to frame an intelligent and
enforceable regulation permitting
either automobiles or pedestrians to
take advantage of clear crossings
and pass the red light, the movement
OF the city's traffic would be con-
siderably facilitated. But such is
not the case.
The fact that heretofore pedes-
trians were not required to obey
traffic signals was due primarily to
an error on the part of Congress in
drafting the original act under which
control was authorized. Pedestrians
were inadvertently omitted in the
definition Of traffic, although they
constitute the bulk of downtown
traffic. Before the error was cor
rected the police regulations had
been drawn up based upon this onis-
sion.
The regulations adopted last Feb
ruary were not designed as a new
annoyance for the individual, but
to correct an error which was
contributing from eighty to hun
dred violent deaths a year to the
city's record.
The best answer to those who be-
lieve the present rules to be unsound
is the report of the Traffic Bureau,
general agency Of the govern
ment rather than one devoted solely
to the interests Of drivers, covering
accidents up to last Friday. During
only five months of this period have
the pedestrian regulations been en-
forced, and for even less than that
time have they been enforced rigidly.
Yet the number Of fatalities was six
less than for the same period of 1888,
and nearly twelve per cent fewer
pedestrians had been killed. The bu-
| reau reports that careful checks In