28 AUGUST 1953, Page 6

Cross I see in the near future an experiment is

to be tried in one or two of the busier London thoroughfares whereby it will be made an offence to cross the street except by a zebra crossing. Although as a nation we take kindly to dragooning and, in fact, embrace with fervour the Welfare State's plans to save us from ourselves, this experiment, if expanded, will surely fill the police courts. The professional jay-walker, indeed any Londoner of spirit, must resent being denied the right to get run over where he fancies. Let there be zebras by all means, across which the aged, the very young, the dreamy and the cautious can saunter in safety, but that the agile metropolitan should be forced out of an oblique approach to the opposite pavement is outrageous. Without pedestrians to miss the driver's eye will become sluggish: the nimble feet of young men making for islands will atrophy : already made moribund by Mr. Baldwin's abject slogan Safety First, the Briton's love of adventure will 'finally die. Although the increase in road accidents must be a source of grave concern to the whole nation, the loss of yet another freedom cannot