Dire penalties are meted out to vehicle drivers who ignore the traffic lights. I have even seen cyclists fined £1 each in court for riding against the red light. Yet pedestrians force their way across a stream of vehicles which has been given permission to proceed. Those on foot who transgress in this manner are every bit as culpable as vehicle drivers would be, and, logically, should be fined the same amounts.
A pedestrian who steps suddenly off the pavement is as great a danger to human life as a motorist who swoops out of a side street into a busy thoroughfare, and should be punished in the same manner.
One has to admit that the avenge pedestrian-crossing provides no guarantee of a safe passage to those who would use it. This is seldom due to any wilful action on the part of drivers, but to the fact that, under normal conditions, the orange beacons are concealed by buses or lorries close to the kerb.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.