The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-30
KIRKPATRICK GIVES REASONS IN FAVOR OF WIDE SIDEWALKS City Engineer Goes Into the Question 0fMaking Change
 on 20th Street OTHER CITIES ARE
 ALREADY IN LINE Shows Advantage of Wider Sidewalks Among Which Are Decreased
 Cost to Property Own
 CTS for Paving


 Kirkpatrick, city engineer, he defends his position in reference to widening the side walks on Twentieth street thereby nar- rowing the street. In prepared article the city engineer says that the street is out of proportion and should be rear ranged before the new paving Is laid. He asserts that his viewpoint is in line with tests made in various cities.
 The statement closes with the assertion that the city engineer regrets that through illness he was unable to oppose vigorously the amendment which was passed by the two commissioners.
 The statement in full follows:
 After careful investigation. I favor widening each sidewalk five feet and mar rowing the roadway correspondingly. on Twentieth street from the Louisville and Nashville railroad to Fourth avenue. This position is taken advisably. though with regrets, because thereby take issue with Judge Lane, who is one of the most con- scientious of men, and with certain prop erty owners, who are among the best peo- pie of Birmingham. I protest against calling this narrowing the street, rather it lc BetlluS COiItIl DIOPOlAiOlo ptlnttn the sidewalk and the roadway. By no means do favor narrowing the street. have heard no reasons stated by those opposing my view. but the matter is of such importance that reasons should be stated Two reasons suggest themselves for not widening the sidewallxs; one is conservatism and the other selfishness.
 Present Conditions
 By conservatism is meant that the proposition is a new one when first pre- sented and naturally people would ex- press themselves as satisfied with the present conditions, but might change their views when the matter Is fully presented. It is such conservatism that would hold to the d-oaken-bucket. which has been good enough for father and grandfather instead of adoption a new water supply, although conditions have so changed that the d-oaken-bucket Is a menace to health. Similarly conditions have changed on Twentieth street side walks and in future will change more and more each year; sidewalks that were wide enough 10 years ago are too narrow for today's traffic. Those who are thus conservative and have not given the mat ter careful thought are asked to notice the crowded condition of these sidewalks in the retail districts on a busy day and to also notice that the roadway is by no means crowded.
 By selfishness is meant that the owner of an automobile may think only of his own convenience in parking his machine hour after hour on the most prominent and useful part of all the streets in Bir- mingham, thereby occupying exclusively a space which easily has a market value of $5000 Those who oppose from this point of view cannot establish reason able argument. The public streets are for public use, for giving the greatest good to the greatest number and not for exclusive individual use at the inconveni- ence of the public. If the roadway be narrowed as here proposed, five feet on each side, 1t could still accommodate this selfish purpose, though not so easily. However, aside from selfishness, this argument will soon lose Its force, because it is apparent that at no distant date some regulation will be enforced by the city government against this growing inconvenience; when an ordinance shall be enforced requiring automobiles to move on after reasonable length of time, it will then be too late to widen the sidewalks It is now or never for getting the proper proportions in the width of sidewalks and roadway. I dis claims insisting upon the passage of such an ordinance, as stated in the papers, such regulations being out of my prov ince.
 Providing for Automobiles
 When it becomes necessary to prohibit automobiles parking on the streets, they can be conveniently provided for by a storage garage, plan for which has al- ready been proposed; this garage will send for, store and return an automobile for a small fee, thus keeping It from the street from the weather and from all damage.
 selfishness. the city engineer hopes will be advanced for the opponents to this change The reasons for the change are:
 '1 The street Is badly proportioued, with 15 foot sidewalks and 70 foot road way, as at present. The sidewalks are crowded on every busy day. This win be admitted by any person who observes JIG siutN dihs oIi sodluIudy UT any olHtE busy day. The sidewalks will become more crowded because in retail 6is- trict the sidewalk traffic increases faster than vehicle traffic, so that in the fu- ture there will be much greater reasons for this change. On the other hand, the roadway is never crowded.
 Traffic Census Taken
 "A traffic census has been made; that Is, careful count made of the number of pedestrians and the number of ye- hicles passing three different points on Twentieth street in given time. T:is count was made on Saturday and also on Monday It showed that on Satur- day, averaging the three points men toned there are 1Sls times as many te- destrians passing on one sidewalk as ve. hicles passing in the entire roadway, and on Monday l31a times as many. The highest ratio was at the corner of Sec ond avenue and Twentieth street, where there were g persons passing on the sidewalk to each vehicle in the roadway No one can reasonably deny that tI:is is badly out of proportion.
 .'2. It has been found by practical ex- perience in so many other cities that 1t may be called general experience that for a street such as Twentieth strees, about one-ffth the width of the street should be the width of each sidewalk: that is, that Twentieth street f1Oo feet widel should have sidewalks 20 feet wide Special inquiry from 12 large cities, se- lected at random, shows that this pro portion has heen quite uniformly adopt ed in these cities. This alone should