The Washington times., 1914-10-01
SEATS IN THE CARS.

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The Public Utilities Commission
is going to provide seats for the
people who ride in street cars, if the
thing can be cone. 1t has been tried
ir a good many other cities with
reasonable success in some and du-
bious results in many. The dictum
Of that street car manager who said
that "the dividends are in the
straps" has deeply impressed mag
mates and managers of city transit
facilities. The notion prevails too
widely that a car isn't operating
profitably unless during a good share
Of time it is filled beyond its Sit
ting capacity.
It will be found particularly diff
ficult, in all probability, to get serv-
ice in Washington adjusted to the
ideals laid down by the commission.
The proposition now under consider
alton that during the rush hours cars
shall provide at least seventy-fve
seats per 100 passengers; that is,
not more than one in four riders
shall be compelled to stand: and at
other hours, there shall be 125 seats
to the hundred passengers.
The rush of morning and evening
is pretty strenuous in Washington,
considering the population, its wide
diffusion, and the fact that in gen.
eral this is rather leisurely town.
That is because such n very large
proportion of the people who ride,
do their riding to and from business
in a very brief period Of early morn
ing and late afternoon. In an indus
trial city, there are regular strata
of the street car riders; the carly
morning people, the middle group,
and the leisure class of workers who
get to their Offices around 9 o'clock.
This spreads the strain over a long
period, and gives a longer profit
earning time. Moreover, in cities of
that class, there is rather a larger
rroportionate movement Of business
throughout the entire day.
Everybody will wish the commits
sion success in its effort to provide
more satisfactory service. But there
will be a firm conviction in many
peoples minds, that less waste in
mileage of cars, less useless haul
age of a passenger in order to earn
his nickel, is the basic reform need
ed. For example, thousands of pas
sengers every day ride longer dis
tances than ought to be necessary to
reach their destinations. They do it
because they can't get transfers to
make the trip by the shortest route.
They also do it because, in adjusting
the car lines to the fact that there
is competition between two systems,
routes are necessarily made round
about and indirect.
The Public Utilities Commission
would do a valuable public service
if it would hire a street car expert
and set him at work getting math-
eratically accurate answer to this
question:
"How much could the ride of the
average passenger wero shortened in
Washington, if there were only
single street car system, and if all
routes wero arranged with a view to
giving the service with the shortest
possible travel, and if universal
transfers were used TO facilitate this
general object?"
The Times has repeatedly pointed
out that there is a great extrava-
gance of time, distance, seats, and
power, in hauling passengers in
Washington. 1t has not the detailed
information with which to demon
stratc what is this percentage of
waste. But it does make bold to VEN
tore that the loss the corporations
would sustain by reason of giving
universal transfers could and would
be fully compensated to them by the
saving in service. Every time pas
senger is hauled twelve sqhares in
order to get him ten squares, the
service of a seat is wasted for two
squares; power is wasted; the PAS
senger's time is lost. The simple ex-
pcdient of consolidating all the cur