The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-07-01
LOWER THE SPEED LIMIT.

Several recent automobile accidents point the
vsv for reform in city ordinances. Recently we
called attention TO the fact that many machines
were being operated by Hedging boys, delicate
women and even immature girls. That ahnse
las been partially remedied BY the adoption OF
N ordinance licensing chauffcrs, and providing
for an examination into their qualifications
The necessary requirement that no on9 be
licensed 10 run an automobile who has not at
tanned wears of maturity and who cannot >Sho"
himself to be possessed of he quantities requisite
10 the safe handling Of so dangerous an agency
of traffic has not vet been met. We trust tha'
this amendment 10 an otherwise sound regulation
will be speedily made The automobile Is not
toy 1t Is not a thing to be placed IN the hands
Of babies. even if they be precociously expert
engineers. Motoring il mans work, and not every
mans work at that. Since it has come 70 he
Of the greatest public concern, 1T becomes es-
Isontial that its practice be confined TO men, and
men only who are physically, mentally and, IN
the broad sense, morally able.
A recent police court trial indicates clearly
another important phase of the situation that re
aures remedy That is the city speed regulation
Upon the trial of a negro chaufer for over
speeding. police officers testified that he was
running the machine through city streets at rate
Of twenty miles an hour. The defense was thai
the speedometer Of the machine showed that the
actual rate Of travel at the time was only nj
teen miles. 1t was on this difference OF hive
miles in one hour that the result OF tins case
hinged. Fifteen miles an hour-four MINUTES
to the mie--is legal rate of speed through
streets that are crowded with people, with cit,
traffic, with street cars. Twenty miles an hour
three minutes to the mile-through the SAM
streets is illegal. What real difference, so ia
as safety to the public is concerned is there be
tween the two rates of speed! According t
Assistant City Attorney Anderson fifteen mile
an hour means four and half city blocks pc
minnie. Twenty miles an hour makes the fou
and half blocks approximately five. Their
is therefore the measure of safety IN the ord
nance that with an automobile rushing tl4FoHg
the streets at fifteen miles an hour it will leopal
die the life and limb of pedestrians on four and
half blocks as against the same danger carrie
to those on five blocks at Inc illegal rate. Ih
Point is what difference does it make, practica
lv 10 a man that he is hit ly five or six tons Q
metal propelled at rate of fifteen miles a
hour, or whether the agency of his demise i
going twenty miles an hour 1t would seem tn,
there ought in either circumstance to be til
benefit of an easy death, BAT the lamentable fa
remains that the average automobile victim
not killed outright: he is only irremediabl
MANNED. In such event the question of wheth'
he was legally or illegally stricken is to him
the slightest possible relevancy.
We recognize the reasonable extension
speed limits in the case of automobiles over hors
/ drawn vehicles. The one is under more or lie
instant human control. The other means, at hie
speed, the injection of unreasonlng animal il
-inc largely beyond the power of regulaio
But the crises of travel in city streets are co
= slant. unforeseen and startlngv sudden. I
= be met they need not only cool and quick a
{ ton on the part of the brains behind the ms
chinerv, but also that the machinery itself
I regulated by law. Fifteen miles on countl
roads with long lookout, is possibly safe for
experienced chauffer to indulge; in city stree
it is manifestly not safe for the best of them.