The laissez-faire attitude of pedestrians in Orange who wander around the place without a care in the world could be solved if the Roads and Maritime Services registered them.
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Just think: they could be given a test to see whether they’re capable of pressing a walk button and then waiting for a green light before crossing the street.
But jokes aside, something needs to be done to force Orange pedestrians to use the marked crossings and not just wander across where they feel like it when they feel like it, which happens now.
All vehicles on the four entrances to the intersections get a red light and pedestrians walk across in all directions, including diagonally.
And things will get worse as Christmas draws nearer.
The RMS says pedestrians are a highly diverse group that has limited tolerance if forced to wait for a green light, and when there’s a gap in the traffic they wander across or jay-run if it’s busy, and that‘s risky.
The RMS had plans to build a fence down the middle of Summer Street, but probably a more achievable solution would be to look at introducing scrambled pedestrian crossings at the busy intersections with Anson Street and Lords Place like they have in Sydney and Wagga.
All vehicles on the four entrances to the intersections get a red light and pedestrians walk across in all directions, including diagonally.
And countdown timers that let people know how long they have to cross the road could be installed, along with shorter wait times for the pedestrian lights to turn green.
These measures might rein in our wayward pedestrians and make the streets safer for everyone, as well as improving traffic flow.
SONG SLAYERS GOING BEYOND POLITICALLY CORRECT
CHRISTMAS classic ‘Baby It's Cold Outside’ is again facing some heat after a number of US listeners deemed the 1944 song sexist and inappropriate at the height of the #MeToo movement. The silly complaints have been aired every year since at least 2010.
It brings back memories of one of my stories for a national newspaper on Banjo Paterson’s ‘Man from Snowy River’.
Historian Dr Jonathon King was directing celebrations in the High Country town of Corryong for the 100th anniversary of the publication of Banjo’s book ‘The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses’ and when he approached sponsors and TV networks for support he was told the poem was sexist.
One network said it would consider doing something if there was a name change to ‘The Person from Snowy River’ and asked him to give an equal balance to genders so women were featured in the story. Dr King refused saying it would be a betrayal of the original poem and all it meant to Australians.
PREPARE FOR THE INVASION OF THOSE PESKY PESTS
WITH the warm weather in Orange we should prepare to wage a nightly battle against attacks by waves of mozzies – enemies of a good night’s sleep – who are itching to get at you.
They breed wherever there’s still water and this week’s rain will be the best possible conditions.
Mozzies are pretty fussy little critters, carefully selecting their victims to attack because some of us invite them to bite while others never get nipped.
One theory is they’re attracted more to blondes and redheads who are likely to stand out in a crowd, and if you’ve had a few beers at a barbecue, as you do, you’re another preferred target because alcohol increases body temperature, attracting the pests.
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