The New York herald., 1922-11-14
WALKING CHALK Line
TO Be TRAFFIC RULE
Public Service Bureau Begins
Operation With Appeal to
Common Sense.
MOTORISTS FACING CURB
Regulatory Methods Used in
Other Cities Are Proposed
for New York.

New York will wake up some of
these days to find nice little runways
chalked down wherever there are
street intersections and traffic prob
lens. Ladies and gentlemen in haste
will have to walk inside these chalk
(they will really be painted) lines or
tell the judge why. This is being done
in other cities, and here and there they
are. quite rough about it when pedes-
TRANS refuse to walk the chalk line
and walk themselves into the hospital
It looks now as il this city is about
to follow suit.
At all events it is one of the correc-
tive measures under consideration by
the Bureau Of ;.ubl!c Safety, the new
est branch of the Police Department.
which opened for business yesterday.
Opened for business rs right, for it is
going to be the busiest little bureau in
North America and points west. It's
Job is to put an end to a state of reck-
lessness in the public streets which
sends $4,000 persons to the hospitals
and which kills $500 Of them every
year. It can be done--that is. the
deaths can be reduced to a quarter or
a fifth, or even less, of the present
number. and the total number Of acci-
dents and injuries can be cut from
5000 to probably 5000 or 1000. So
the experts figure as they reckon what
that saving would mean in human
happiness and economic benefit.
Bosses Are Busy Men.
Bossing this new police job is the
newest of Special Deputy Police Com
missioners, Barron Collier. and Mr.. Coll
lier has the expert services OF staff
that Is going into the work with a very
real enthusiasm and a determination to
get results. The most experienced expert
of the staff Is Marcus Dow. who is in
charge OF the Bureau of Public Safety
when Mr.. Collier Is away. Since the
latter is q busy man, this Is often. and
Mr.. Dow can be considered the working
head OF the safety bureau. 1t was he
who received a reporter for THE NEW
York HERALD yesterday and discussed
plans and prospects.
For ten years." said Mr.. Dow. II was
director of safety for the New York Cen
tral Railroad. At present l am presi-
dent Of the National Safety Council.
which has $500 industries employing
7,00O,000 men In its membership. with
this background of experience | say out
right that New York City's traffic pre-
sents the biggest safety problem In the
world. The shape of Manhattan Island.
the phenomenon OF one part OF vast
city being the workshop of three or four
states. the strange haste which seems to
seize people here and make them mad,
combine with many other factors to
present a problem of baffiing perplexity
But Il has got to be solved and we are
going to do the Job II II is humanity
possibie. Cooperation is offered to us
from all sides--from the Mayor and his
various departments. particularly the
Police Department from civic associa.
tions and business men generally; from
the life Insurance companies ana from
several other Intelligent sources.
working Out Plans.
eve have got to stop state or
affairs that kills $500 people every
year and Injuries more or less seriously
about $4,000. At the present moment
we are just getting up momentum. We
are working out preliminary plans and
policies We are building I'D a great
a.