Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-02-07
AUToBUSSES HAVE TRANSIT
RELIEF POSSIBILITIES
conaested Philadelphia Could Learn
Something From the Speedy and
Convenient Motor Lines
of Other Cities

THERE are times when Philadelphians
= are inclined to wonder whether Will
liam Penn has not been a shade over
thanked.
Unwilling sentinels crowd the car-stop
corners. Traffic jammed in the narrow
streets halts long lines of trolleys. In
such close quarters it is evident that even
transportation system run by supermen
must break down. Possessed by that dis
NAL thought, the average pessimist is in
| mood to scowl back through the ages at
the founder.
Penn, the benign William Penn, metal
lically magnified atop marble tower, is
to blame. He designed our narrow
thoroughfares and they're woefully out of
date. Hands are wrung and sighs
breathed. We envy other towns which
can do something with transit
1t is conceivable that an inquiring
stranger might view the case differently.
He could not fail to observe Broad
street--a Penn creation. 1t is unlikely
that the Parkway would escape his ad-
miring gaze, and were his explorations
sufficiently thorough he might notice the
Roosevelt boulevard, Girard avenue,
Spring Garden street and the spacious
roadways in the Park region, now almost
completely surrounded by built-up parts
of the city.
By that time a singular conclusion
would be well-nigh inescapable. Phila-
delphia would be revealed as that excep-
tional town which chiefly confines its
transit facilities to its narrowest streets.
The situation is not paralleled any
where. Paris would not think of clutter
ing it's busy and, for that metropolis,
comparatively narrow Rue de Rivoli with
trolleys. Electric cars are routed on
roomier avenues or boulevards, on st.
Michel on Quatre Septembre, on Mont
parnasse.
In the heart of West End London not
''tram" is to be seen. They start from
the periphery of that animated district
and the streets served by them are broad.
AS is perfectly we'll known, motor
busses in the French and British capitals
scurry through those vital arteries that
are wide, we'll paved and channels of met
ropolitan life.
Buses have been suggested in Phila-
delphia for generations. On several oc-
casions they have in a half-hearted way
been introduced here. Tradition was
against them-the tradition that our mar
row streets must bear the traffic and that
the designs of William Penn made the
transit riddle insoluble, except by the
construction of costly subways.
Notorious relief has been proposed
again. Despite its failure to accomplish
much in the past, it is worth considering.
Nothing can be done, of course, while the
wide streets, which we possess in more
abundance than we usually realize, are
regarded as sacrosanct. We shall have to
accustom ourselves to the revolutionary
idea of using the Parkway as transit
channel. We shall have to arm ourselves
against the deep-rooted notion that the
worst conceivable blockades on Thir-
teenth and Fifteenth streets are justitia-
BILE in order to keep Broad street inviolate.
Most important of all, notorious trans
portation will have to be conducted on a
| comprehensive, practical scale or the ex-
| pertinent will be worse than valueless.
| In fact, another bus-line failure would be
apt to bury US permanently under moss
| grown misconceptions.
routes are not nearly so formidable as the
scoffer sometimes thinks. While it is true
that private and commercial autos flock
to Broad street, the traffic there is not
nearly so heavy as on Fifth avenue in
New York, which has long had motor
| line, and that street is no more crowded
than London's Piccadilly Circus, whence
buses radiate to many parts of London.
The Parkway is never deadlocked. In
deed the avenue, which has the finest po-
tentialities of any in town, frequently has
the aspect of desert. Bus lines on this
boulevard would be enabled to serve sew
eral sections of the city. A possible route
| could make the contemplated new struc-
lures on the Parkway accessible anc
could then tap West Philadelphia vie
Spring Garden street bridge. Anothe,
could utilize Paramount Park, providing g
new means of communication with Falls
of Schuylkill and Manayunk, thus reliev'
ing some of the pressure on Ridge ave
nue., while third could be extended uI
roomy Thirty-third street, facing tn,
Park, with a terminus at the Dauphir
street entrance.
Broad street from Logan to Leagu,
Island suggests an obvious bus route
There could be farms" or spurs fol
Girard avenue, Spring Garden street anc
Diamond street. Once the public distrust
of bus lines is allayed the possibilities are
vastly extended. Transportation experts
properly supported could speedily wipe
out much of the existing prejudice.
If the job is scientifically handled
whether by the Philadelphia Rapic
Transit or outside concerns, it is incon
ceivable that it would not be valuabl,
adjunct to our transit facilities.
The early enterprises hardly deserves
to succeed. Philadelphians have gloom!
memories of the old horse buses ol
Broad street, with their rattling window
and their intolerable humping over tn
rough belgian blocks with which tina
thoroughfare was then paved,
The storage-battery electric line i
hardly more agreeable in retrospect. TIL
] y hot . Lo