Evening star., 1924-11-13
TRAFFIC OFFICERS !
FAIL IN NEW PLAN
Reporter Finds Only One VINO
Understands and Obeys
Whistle Order.

Inspector Albert ]. Headley's orders
10 his traffic policemen to blow .
warning blast of the whistle to no
tify pedestrians that the flow of traf-
fic VIII be changed, and then to allow
suitable interval before the traffic
Is changed, are either misunderstood
by four of his officers on duty yes
terday afternoon at four busy cor
ners of the city, or else his orders
are being fagrantly disregarded.
with no pretense at following them.
On the other hand, the officer on
duty during the rush hour at Penn
sylvania avenue and Fourteenth
street yesterday did understand the
orders, and he obeyed them, with the
result that pedestrians there were
better safeguarded than anywhere
else.
Results of Inspection.
1t is not difficult nor tedious task
to Investigate the way traffic officers
| respond to orders from the officer in
| charge of traffic, and for this purpose
a reporter was assigned yesterday to
| watch traffic al Fourteenth street and
| Pennsylvania avenue, Twelfth street
and Pennsylvania avenue, Eleventh
street and Pennsylvania avenue,
| Eleventh and F streets and Twelfth and
f streets.
The results Of his inspection fol-
| low:
At Fourteenth street and Pennsylvania
avenue the officer was on the lookout
| for pedestrians as well as automo-
| bile traffic. Before changing his
| sign from stop" to "go," or vice
versa, he looked in every direction
to note the flow of pedestrian trafffic,
| blew a warning blast on his whistle,
| hurried up the pedestrians moving
| in the way of the coming traffic and
| when all was clear turned his sign.
Observation showed that automobil-
| lists as well as pedestrians have
caught on" to the trick and obeyed
| his signals perfectly. OF course,
there were pedestrians who were
| caught in the path Of traffic or who
deliberately moved against the sign
| But this was the case of the pedes-
trian, not the automobilist or the po-
| liCeman, at fault.
I At 18th and the Avenue.
At Twelfth and the Avenue the
case was entirely different. The Of
| ficer there, not a regular traft1c Of
! ficer. by the way contented himself
| with hand motions and whistle blow
ling. He should have borne large
| sign stating Every man for himself.
| and the devil take the hindmost. for
| his whistle signal was given in every
; case at the same instant he waved
! his arms to change the direction IN
traffic. The result: A pedestrian Is
crossing from north to south of the
Avenue. automobile .tratfic moving
north and south. Suddenly he hears
| blast of the whistle, looks up and
| finds traffic moving east and west.
| He hasn't had chance to tell when
the officer would change the flow Of
traffic. He's caught high and dry
| in a moving stream Of automoblles.
Its not his fault, it is not the fault
of the automobile driver. The or
ficer was wrong.
Much the same condition existed at
Eleventh and the Avenue. The pol
iceman there was a disciple OF the
windmill system of directing traffic.
He waved his arms, blew his whistle.
and automobiles and pedestrians had
a life-and-death race. The police
man, the referee in the race, gave no
decision, but luckily it was a draw
in every instance, as no pedestrians
were sent to the hospital.
Officer Rather Careless.
At Twelfth and F streets the officer
was little better informed but
on his hands. too. y4e pedestrians
| came pell NELL across the street with
i out any regard for his signals. Sew
! eral times he endeavored to warn
pedestrians by a toot of his whistle
in advance of changing the traffic.
but for the most part he gave it up
in disgust. He was energetic, how
ever, which is saying more than can
be said for the officer at the crossing
on Pennsylvania avenue. He was
confronted with the problem, in al
most every instance, of having two
or more machines waiting to make
left hand turn, so that after he blew
his whistle he gave these machines
time to complete their turns before
changing the flow of traffic. This
should have served as a warning to
pedestrians, but they disregarded the
warning.
At Eleventh and streets the Of
fcer evidently was suffering from
fatigue. He turned his sign in a
number of cases without blowing his
whistle at all. When he did blow it
he had already turned the sign.
Question: Why the whistle at all?
Inspector Headley might look into
the matter
The Star reporter will be on the
job at corners this afternoon. If
Inspector Headley is interested in
seeing how his traffic officers obey
his whistle signal order he may also
leave his office and observe, as the
reporter will observe He may be
enlightened on obedience in his de-
partment of the police force.
-