Newark post., 1920-08-25
Effect of Increased Through
Traffic


the town clearly understand wha'
amount of additional traffic upor
Main Street may be expected i'm
mediately and in the future
should that thoroughfare form
part of the Lincoln Highway. We
can all imagine such an increase
of general traffice upon Main
Street as would render it danger
Gus and almost useless for local
purposes. If we are to have with
in the next five years an almost
continuous procession of heavy
through trucks upon Main Street,
plainly it will cease to be our
street, and become everybody's S
street. The suggestion has been
made that heavy trucking should
be provided for by a detour, and
perhaps such a plan is what we
need if the great highway is to
traverse Main Street.
If through traffic greatly in
creases Upon Main Street the town
water pipes may be endangered,
and certainly foot passengers will
be endangered. We already have
a difficult problem in the regula-
tion of speed upon Main Street,
and that problem would be vastly
more difficult with largely in
creased through traffic. The ex-
pense of policing the street would
be largely increased by such a
growth of through traffic. OF
course those who hope and believe
that Newark is to be a large and
active business community may
properly enough reply to this
argument, that the increased cost
of traffic regulation will be amply
met by the increased taxation
from the higher assessment upon
improved business premises.
As to the injury to business by
the exclusion of through traffic
from Main Street, is is possible
that great increase of such
traffic might be even more damag-
ing. A street so crowded with
through traffic, which is certainly,
vehicle for vehicle, less profitable
to most business men than local
traffic, as to produce an embaras-
sing congestion, can not enrich
the merchants, and might not
prove as profitable to our restau-
rants and garages as they per-
haps expect. There must be a
careful balancing of public and
private loss and gain. The men
who have put money and enter
prise into the establishing of
garages have a right to ask that
their fellow citizens pause before
decreeing ruin to the garage own
ers. if, indeed, any such damage is
threatened, but the garage own
ers can not ask that the COM
munity interests be sacrificed to
theirs. The like is true of res
taurants and other purveyors to
the travelling public, local or
general.
May Require Widening of Main
Street.
One immensely important mat
ter is to be considered by both
private residents and the business
community, and that is the posi-
bility, indeed the strong probabil
ity, that the State, County, and
Federal authorities which will
control the Lincoln Highway will
insist within very few years
upon the widening Of Main Street
to 100 feet between curbs. Every
resident, and many business con-
Germs would be vitally affected by
such a change, for it would mean
the rebuilding of the street in a
very large measure. Here Della
ware College would be disastrous
ly affected, and it is by no means
certain that any except very few
business concerns would profit by
the widening. The representative
of New Castle county warned the
little group of townsfolk who met
to discuss this question the other
day that such widening of Main
Street was highly probable
event of the future.
Careful Study of Question
Necessary
A careful and dispassionate
SfudN of tho Mh ola g i'm a 4 n., ,,.;4l