The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-04-09
WOMEN
 AND THINGS

| your own car and have to park IL III Ine
 downtown district you will more than | likely be interested in this story. I happened to be riding down with | friend the other morning and as we | reached Twentieth street I asked him where he was going to dock" You are sailorman," he answered, or you would
 never have used a nautical term for what is purely landsmen affair. I park be- fore my store, provided I beat some oth- CT fellow to it. But on the morning m question the earlier motorist had already parked.
 Now, the question of parking in grow ing town which requires more and more space on the streets for ordinary busi- ! ness soon reaches an acute stage. This is more intensified when the number or owners of motor vehicles begin to mount up rapidly as here in Birmingham. Just now it is a problem which daily agitates many business men who use their cars either for pleasure or commercial pur- poses.
 I have just spent morning walking up and down the avenues and streets In the downtown section taking note of the number and variety of automobiles and the various manner in which their own CTS have parked them, for be it known there is just as much difference in the way men park their cars as there IS In the methoa they employ in driving them on the roads.
 Some drivers are always courteous enough not to 'hog" the road, while others get a reputation as road hogs. Some drivers are always careful not to | take chance with their own or the lives
 of others, while many drive with reck- lessness that borders upon criminallty
 and bring motoring into disrepute, and makes it dangerous to life and limb or those who have to walk on city streets or country roads.
 On my tour of investigation l saw some cars parked with care with nose straight in or body on slight angle. Many Of them were parked side by side leaving space for later cars to get stand, but in many instances l discovered cars which were headed in a manner to take up much more room than was needed, thereby depriving some one of chance to get place. It seems there are park ing hogs" as well as road hogs.'' After studying the conditions as found them, I then entered offices and stores and tried to get line on the wishes of the occupants in regard to the parking of cars. Almost without excep- tion the merchants complained that in nine cases out of ten the space in front of their doors was taken up and it was
 difficult to get in goods by the front
 or allow a place for customers to alight But you say, they should use the rear door for receiving and delivering goods. Perfectly reasonable, and done when the conditions permit. I happened to talk to a. man who is near public service cor poration, using many wagons, which to- gether with the furniture vans of con- cern facing the other avenue keeps he alley almost continuously blocked. He was on the verge of despair not knowing where to turn, for he was shut out in front and bottled up in the rear.
 
 l then stopped owners of cars as they drove up and got their views, talked to policemen, interviewed pedestrians, had conversations with dealers, and the more people l saw the more complicated the situation became, for there was a wide divergence of opinion as to what should 1 be done to better matters; but many of them after thinking about it would frankly admit they had no solution to 1 offer.
 I met ex-Commissioner of Streets J. D. Truss and put him through a civil service examination as to the best way to ham, dle the parking question and he was most civil but admitted it was a mighty hard nut to crack and as he was out of the commission and in the legislature he would let Professor Burruss, his success sor, sweat over the matter for he liked knotty problems, and as a teacher had
 been used to solving them.
 
 I had a talk with Commissioner Bur russ and also with Commissioner Tay- Tor, for while the former has the streets under his care it's up to the latter to look
 out for the traffic situation. They were both very much interested in tackling
 the whole matter of parking and of prop erly routing the traffic to relieve con- gestion in the heart of the city. I then saw Chief Middleton of the fire depart men and Chief of Police Shirley. and
 both of them are wide awake on the sub. ject. I then went to the Birmingham Mo- the secretary. and found him most re- captive and interested.
 I found some who wanted the cars taken entirely off a restricted area in the heart of the city and required to find parking room around Capitol park if they were to remain downtown all day. I found others who wanted the time limit for allowing cars to remain at a given place reinstated, while I found many who believed it was best not to have a time limit but to rigidiy enforce the. present laws
 I think it would be wise thing for Commissioners Burruss and Taylor and