The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-20
TOUSE THE
 ROAD PROBLEM
Lust Be Made To Serve Motor x ists In Most Satisfactory sess Manner

's Determining how the modern net work of good roads shall be used is s the new problem for organized motor- ists, in the opinion of officials of the National Motorists association. This was the view expressed yesterday by Executive Secretary Fred H. Galley, who added:
 "We are turning the entire power of our organization upon the problem of making the roads of the country serve the motorist in the most satisfactory manner. Now that we are getting the roads we have been fighting for, the next step is to keep them."
 The N. M. A. program outlined for 1924 in connection with this subject, 1t was pointed out, is the result of a request put at the recent annual meet ing by Judge Walter D. Meals, presi- dent of the organization. Judge Meals said:
 Public sentiment today is such that the fight for good roads that has been made has been won. The great prob lem of the future will be in the use of them and the maintenance of them i; and the work of automobile clubs. as I conceive it, from now forward will be to see to it that, the many millions of dollars that have been expended in this s country, and will be hereafter expend- ed in the improvement of roads, are not wasted and lost through misuse or failure to keep in repair the roads that have been built.".
 According to Secretary Galley one of the biggest problems in connection with the use fo the roads is the proper regulation of the motor truck, but feature of the N. M. A. work along .these lines, he explains, is that it will be carried on in cooperation with truck manufacturers and motor vehicle authorities of the various states.
 "Instead of getting out and buck ing the truck manufacturers, as too many people and organizations are at Tempting to do," Galley said, "our policy is to get out and cooperate with them and have them cooperate with ''us to bring abount conditions that motorists and the public in general ,want. That is the way to get results. T think we can get results from the signposting concfrns if we will proceed along the sane liberal lines. Bill boards along the highways are, for the most part, a nuisance and a menace, bEI nothing cam be accomplished by attempting arbitrarily to force the ad- svertiser off the roads.
 t "The motorist can do more to safe guard his roads and make them more useful if, through his organization, he will endeavor to show the billboard people and the manufacturers that ad- .vertising that jeopardizes the motorist is not advertising at all, but sales re- sistance of the most powerful kind.
 -The. automobile driver who rams another car because a billboard ob- scured his view of the road ahead is not likely to regard the advertiser with business-producing respect. Conditions of hte main highways are such that the driver must give his full attention to the matter of operating the car, and any thought he may give to advertis- ing is decidedly secondary.
 "The N. M. A. hopes that in pre- 'senting the matter to advertisers the inadvisability of trying to gain the motorists attention when he is driv- ing will be, evident. When an adver- tiser attracts a drivers attention an accident is usually the result, not sale.
 x .sCo-operation with the railroads is resulting in minimizing grade cross- ing accidents on the Long Island Auto mobile club and the Automobile club of New York, working in conjunction with city officials and the representa- tives of the Good Roads Board of the N. NJ. A. The investigators revealed the fact that cooperation with the railroads had not been previously con- sidered seriously Yet it is this very cooperation from which there is every hope that big results will be obtained. ,aS''The N. M. A. intends proceeding along liberal lines in attacking this problem of roa duse, because it is the biggest problem the. motorist has on his hands and because the subject touches upon so many interests as to render cooperation the only feasible way of obtaining results"
 The Birmingham Motor club is the local organization affiliated with the N M A