New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-04-10
The Scrap Pile

Roads arc q subject Of never ending
interest to the motorist. "How are
the roads" Is q question that every
man asks who drives a car. The whole
matter of whether a road is good or
bad is apparently dependent on the
kind of car that the motorist drives
| If it is badly balanced car, whether
long wheel base or short, If the springs
are poorly made or in poor condition, a
moderately bad road will seem atroci-
GUS. There is a difference in che way
many an automobile rides and drives be-
sides that particular one which uses
this as it's advertising slogan, II we
may take the liberty.
The writer has on many occasions
returned from trips over what APP
peared to him extremely poor roads,
to find. that somebody else, having
travelled over them in q car perhaps
OF much longer wheel base or of diff
terent construction, has found them
perfectly all right. There is, however,
no mistaking certain very bad roads,
used, or what it's shock absorbing
qualities are. For instance, on the
west drive in Central Park there are
several bad stretches, places which
have not been good for years, and
wn,cn apparently are not susceptible
OF being improved.
:, Another kind of roadway we do not
IKE IS the present surfacing of the
Boston Post Road from White Plains
road to tho New York City line. IN
GUIDED among the kinds Of roads to be
aVo1oed are many of the streets in
jersey City, Hoboken and West Ho-
ooken, particularly the ferry ap-
proaches and many Of the cross streets
leading from Palisade Avenue over to
the Hudson County Boulevard.
There are many poor stretches Of
road t? be encountered everywhere in
an ordinary days running and it is too
bad that there IS so much bad road.
Cars would last longer and run very
much better If roads we're universally
smoother. 1t is real economy to have
good roads because it c1n be IMAGINED
readily that cars of chcader construc-
ton would stand up longer or smooth
surfaces than they do being battered
and jolted about on rough highways. A
great deal of money goes into repair
bills that could be saved and great
deal of money is wasted on tires that
need not be if roads were better. 1t is
In the interest of the motorist, from
the point Of view of his pocketbook
and not alone from that of his com
fort, to battle for better roads. Bet
ter roads, of course, bring with them
dividends to those who live alongside
them in increased land values and a
number of comforts and advantages.
There seems to be no bad and very,
very much that is good in better high
ways.
1t is with regret that one notes a
breaking up of the wood block pave
ment on Broadway in the old town of
Flushing. This, we have been told on
many occasions, is one of the oldest, if
not the oldest, wood block pavements
ever laid in this country, and it has
been down, according to report, for the
better part of twenty years, and al
though uneven in some places has never
stood so much in need of repair as now.
The new tall semaphores at busy
traffic intersections are a good limo
walton in the scheme of traffic regula-
ton. We would like to suggest the in
stallation of one at Thirty-fourth
Street and Fourth Avenue, because
drivers coming from downtown and
ascending the grade between Thirty
third and Thirty-fourth streets cannot
toll anything about the ideas of the
policeman on post there, as he is COM
pletely shut off from their sight bv
the grade. Also, we would like to sup-
gest repavng of the blocks between
Thirty-second and Thirty fourth streets.
on the east side of Fourth Avenue