Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-10-22

How the road conditions in Pennsyl-
vania are being discussed outside is
illustrated by an article in the New
York Times OF recent date. OF course,
the writer did not see the hundreds
OF miles of ane highways, but that's
another story. Here is what he has
TO say and 1t will be interesting as a
sidelight on the good roads move
nlent:
Road conditions in Eastern Penn
sylvania are not merely so bad as to
rob motoring of it's pleasure; they are
positively dangerous. During a recent
trip of more than 450 miles in the
keystone State by a representative of
the New York Times not fifty miles
of road were found that would be
deemed even passably good in New
Jersey or New York. Much of the
surface was unoelievably rough; some
of it was calculated to wreck any car
which had the temerity to attempt
passage. The attempts at repair sim
ply made matters worse, while the
posting of a detour had never been
heard of. apparently.
Peril Turks in Curves
Aside from the mere discomfort of
such conditions, real peril lurked in
unposted IS curves, bridges placed at
the peak of right-angled turns, blind
trolley and railroad crossings, un-
guarded embankments and winding
State road not wide enough for two
vehicles of any kind to pass. Eastern
Pennsylvania to-day is a perfect eX-
ample of the inadequacy of roads
planned and maintained on the basis
of horse drawn traffic to meet the re-
quirements of safety, not to mention
pleasure. with motor vehicles.
"Even for horse drawn traffic the
phi. 'Sophy of placing bridge as the
right-angle link between two parallel
roads, then narrowing the bridge to a
point which would prevent two full
sized wagons from passing, throwing
in trolley crossing on the bridge for
Sood measure, and, finally, keeping the
whole death trap completely secret
from the stranger by a screening of
trees and lack of signs is a phi
losophy the intricacies of which it is a
hit hard to follow. But such a sit
nation is not imaginary; it is to be
found with minor variations, as to the
signs and the trolley crossings, at
dozens of points in the section of
country with Philadelphia, Harrisburg
and Scranton on its boundary.
Road Narrows On Bridge
For instance, between Doylestown
end Easton, on the main State high
way, a stream is crossed many times
in precisely this way. The road, mar
row enough at best, is made still more
narrow at the bridge which is at right
angles to II. In those cases in which
the trolley also uses the bridge the
trolley car, in swinging around the
curve, projects so far as to take UP
early all of the roadway: indeed. no
renders are in use on the cars since
they would completely block the road
way on the curves. On part of this
precarious stretch there are warning
signs indicating curve to come; on
part of 1t. however, there are no signs,
and this lack of uniformity is almost
worse than total lack OF warning.
At one point the sign is on the wrong
side OF the road and partly obscured
by trees.
The road surface along this stretch
Is OF the most uneven character. For
stretches it is fairly smooth and then
for mile or Two worn down to the
bedrock. At one point on a down
grade. one actually has to run for sew
eral yards over the Jagged outcrop of
the rock strata. for the whole cover
of the road hes been washed and worn
away. Where repairs are in progress
and this applies generally to all the
roads which were covered on the trim
in question-the usual method is to
dump very coarse broken stone. about
the size of stove coal, across the whole
width of the roadway and then leave
the passing motorist to do the rest:
apparently to break up the stone fur