Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-06-10
ARE MOTOR DRIVERS PEOPLE?
ARE THEY REALLY RECKLESS?
The Negligence Of Public Authorities Is
First Cause Of Many Traf.
fie Accidents


ON MONDAY. as usual. the newspapers
~ Of the country will print on their front
pages what has come to be called The
Week End Toll of Automobile Accidents.
Motor picncs will have come to grief.
Amateur drivers will have made the usual
attempts TO pass machines in front of them
without turning to the right or TO the left.
They will have learned that wings are neces
sary to overhead flight. And the dismal
news will be accepted as ground for the
assumption that gasoline is still n curse of
sorts and thar something stirring ought to be
done about it.
Something ought to be done about it, Of
course 1t should have been done years and
years ago. The public authorities who make
the laws of the roads should have awakened
from their intellectual slumbers. They
should have realized that motors will have
TO be dealt with not through methods of
repression. but in n manner likely TO facili.
tate their movement and improve their USE
fulncss
Like the women who led the early fight
for the vote. the drivers OF automobiles have
right to insist that they are people and
not aliens 10 the common order of society.
They have a right to object strenuously to
the manner in which they nrc crowded and
jamm"d and jostled because of inadequate
thoroughfares and rules that suggest little
but futiity and bad temper in the places of
authority.
Thus few home made street signals on
the city streets, and on the country roads
an occasional constable or squire like the
cherished ierkes of Millbourne. represent
all the efforts made by public officials gen.
orally 70 meet the requirements of Il uni.
versal. revolutionary and expanding system
Of common transport.
No one ever seems to believe that motor
accidents may be due 10 the recklesSness of
the public authorities. as usual thing.
rather than to the recklessness of motor
drivers. Yet there was actually in thr City
Council movement to prevent Superin-
tendent of Police Mills from obtaining the
money necessary TO install really adequate
traffic signals on the busiest streets in cen.
tral areas. Meanwhile. the absence of such
a system has made motor driving unsafe
for drivers and their passengers.
If automobiles continue 70 be used in the
buster streets Of cities II is because they
have become Indispensable 70 business and
professional people and not beraIse there
is any fun in maneuvering them about in the
thickening and dangerous jam created by the
inadequacy of the streets. backward police
equipment and the forward movement of
the motor industry.
\ complete revision of Official philosophy
Will be necessary to accommodate motor
traffic in and out of cities and to make life
safe for the people in and out of automo.
biIes. Thus. while reports of motor acci.
dents may seem significant. no one objects
when driver is killed at some death trap
that might have been made safe with an
inexpensive police signal.
Some of the most dangerous corners and
street intersections in this city are still not
only unguarded. but without ADEQUATE illu-
mination at night. The signals which the
police are about to install on the central
thoroughfares will have 10 be extended in
the very near future to every important
thoroughfare. and, of course, the traffic
squad Will have I" be largely increased. In
the course of time similar safeguards for
motorists and people afoot will have 10 he
paced on open highways which now are
coming 10 have the aspect Of railroads with.
OUT an operating system.
Automobile manufacturers ara making
better and cheaper cars. and especially in
this country the automobile is regarded nc
necessary adjunct 70 every sort Of br.i
ness. MotorcarS carry more people rhnn tho
railroads.
Progressive and constructive thinking IL
necessary in official quarter. to reduce the
motor-accident toll Groa, HIGHWAYS whom
they are built must be properly polired.
Laws, once they are made 10 govern rpotors
ought to be enforced. Speed limits sbould
be fixed, according 10 thp nature Of the
roads and the country through which they
pnSs. and then maintained And in cities
tn" authorities should cease 70 believe that
! constant repression will solve wLar tbev call
the motor traffic problem. They will have to
| widen their streets and plan for grent motor
! thoroughtar"S ana use every scientific
m"rhod that will tend TO make the movement
Of all wheeled traffic safe and easy. II thew
| don't. then the mutitudes that ride in ou,o.
mobiles will move gradually out Of the nsr
! row streets 10 places in which, even now
| wide and convenient highways aro heing
! prepared for them.
! The time Is coming when il will seen
| quite as foolish 10 shut OUT motorrars nc Il,
! would be TO shut out railroads or troII.vs