The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-11-09
Artery r2O4 Feet Wide Arranged With No
 Limits On Speed
By CYRIL ARTHUR PLAYER

cry AmerlCan community. LdWS CuHho' solve the problem, for there are not in the United States, jails wide or high enough to encompass 115,0OO,000 per sons. e..
 Detroit gave to the world the motor car. It is history now, the story ot eccentric genius tinkering on the back end of q lot with converted buggy The motor vehicle has brought forth within single generations, il millions of progeny, scurrying over the highways of the earth, thrustins themselves in dense and endless files down. the thoroughfares, bearing off ir a single day the virtual population oi city, transporting the merchandise to the farmer, the produce to the mer. chant, tilling the soil and skimming the roads.
 There is no parallel to this story It is the story of Detroit. It embraces an era in the worlds social history. Ii is the age of the motor vehicle.
 In common with every important community, Detroit faces the Franken. stein of its creation. More than any other community, Detroit has felt the urge to solve the problem it has con jured up. Detroit believes it has found the answer What it has found it of fers for the consideration of every other community. The solution offered by Detroit is the Super-Highway.
 Decentralizing Population
 In its effect, it means simply decen- tralization of population instead of (primarily) decentralization of traffic ha will kIa The new American city, by coherent, related urban and suburban transit de velopment, will transfer its huge sur plus population into more healthful, comfortable residential districts any where within a 30-mile radius, and will still be able to gather in the whole for its commercial and industrial pur- poses within 45 minutes or an hour
 The super-highway is based on two fundamental conclusions, accepted by every authority on traffic problems in the country:
 Motor vehicle traffic has far
 out-grOwn road facilities, and i'm
 cTeases much faster than the facil-
 ities to care for 1t; no facilities
 in sight under methods custOmarily
 employed can keep pace with it,
 let alone overtake it.
 The prime quality of the mod
 ern automobile is speed. High
 speed travel must be accepted as
 an essential feature of the motor
 traffic highways of the future.
 ture. .
 These are the broad principles or which a solution must rest. The Detroit super -highwal fulfils them. It is more than a city plan; it is a plan embrac ing and embraced by neighboring coun ties and independent communities, al the whole area, not merely to mitigate present evils but to provide for the needs in 1850. and in 2.000.
 Is 2O4 Feet Wide
 The super-highway is an exclusive right-ofway, 204 feet wide from prop erty line to property line. It provides for pedestrian traffic, for express rapid rail transit, and for local rail transit for high speed uninterrupted motor vehicle travel, and for local motor vehicle travel; for loading platforms safety zones, and parking lanes.
 All the motor vehicle traffic is one way on each driveway, and it's segre gation or classification persists tho entire length of the super -highwal. The dimensions follow:
 A central space of S4 feet for tn, exclusive use of rapid transit line. on rails, and the tree and shrub plant ing to screen it.
 A. 20-foot roadway for express moto traffic on each side of the central space making 40 feet.
 A 5-foot planting, or safety zon, strip, on the outside of the express road way, making 10 feet.
 A 20-foot roadway for motor park ing and local motor traffic on eacl side making 40 feet.
 A 15-foot sidewalk on each side, mak ing 30 feet.
 Perspective drawings accompanying this article picture all the features o the superhighway.
 Detroit's rapid transit commission in an admirable report, says:.
 High speed on rubber tires canno be attained any more than on rail. unless all interferences from intersect ing surface traffic are eliminated. There fore, just as rail transit requires aI exclusive right of way, with all grad, CIOSSllSS SO ull nlR0 SDeet or express motor traffic, to be safe, re quires a similar right of way. Tn, perspective drawing shows how this i to be accomplished, giving the expres motor traffic a clear road. a cross whicl it is improbable for other traffic t, pass"
 Between stations all classes of traffi will use the same level on the surface But the various travel levels will b properly defined and related so that ve hicles can travel through the local road ways into the express lane for rapi, distance movement, and out agail through the local roadway when ap preaching their destination. The opera tion in the express lane will be con tinuous. Vehicles will merge into am flow along with the stream, and ii nally leave, but never cross it. It vii represent the maximum of efficiency il motor vehicle operation.
 Cannot Cross At Grade
 Wheel traffic cannot cross the rapi transit line at grade, but may pass un der at the half-mile intersections, ant likewise pedestrians may cross by mean of overhead or underground passage where conditions warrant such cross ings. At stations located every one