Evening star., 1924-11-12
TRAFFIC REGULATIONS
Traffic Education
BY GUS Il. SCHULDT,
Judge, Police and Traffic Courts.

necessary to spread the education as
| taught by the organization agitation as
| to the necessity of obedience of the
regulations, the dangers of the viola
i tion OF them and the penalties inflicted
| for this breach.
The Police Court is not intended as a
money-making institution, although il
| has had some success along these lines,
| collecting last year s461,164. The pur-
pose and object of prosecution is. not to
raise funds. but to assure the observ-
ance of safe and orderly operation of
| vehicles.
Adjustments Out of Court.
There are many violations Of the
| regulations which no doubt could be adj
Justed without bringing them to court.
In some Jurisdictions a card is fur
nlshed the driver, and minor violations
are punched thereon by the traffic Off
Ger. When arrested for some serious
violation this card is taken into consid-
Grafton in fixing the penalty. A certain
number of violations of the minor regu-
latlons is also cause of revoking a
| license
The report Of the Senate committee
| on the local traffic situation made many
| suggestions along these lines but no ac-
| ton has, as yet. been taken upon this
report.
The necessity of more traffic Off
| GERS IS becoming more evident daily
Hs the number of cars increase.
! Wherever they are stationed traffic
conditions are materially benefited,
If not entirely perfected. Owing to
the growth of the city, many see
tons are now nearly as coneested
as the downtown" quarter and re-
quire practically the same supervi-
sion. This is particularly true of
the Mount Pleasant section. Sufi-
cient force should also be in reserve
to take care Of public occasions, which
. are quite frequent here.
Need Pedestrian Omcrrs.
I There should be traffic officers also
at the extremely congested intersec-
tions to care for the pedestrian
/ travel. Walkers should be taught to
follow the vehicular traffic. 1t is
really expecting too much of one
traffic officer to care for both vehicu-
lar and pedestrian traffic. In the
| larger cities there is frequently an
officer on each corner to pilot the
pedestrians across.
With our wide, smooth streets
! there should be no difficulty in per
| fecting some scheme of traffic move
mept which would prevent jams and
concessions and at the same time
t
trian. other cities with narrower
streets have perfected systems which
seem to function satisfactorily But
OF course, without a complete force
and comprehensive system of sig
nails we will always be backward.
II some Of the. moneys collected from
the gasoline tax, the auto license
( tags and auto fines could be used for
the employment of additional traffic
guardians, safety appliances and
sa Eety propaganda conditions would
soon be bettered Washington should
+! have model traffic regulations, strict
observance and perfect execution of
them.
With these dominant factors in
mind. ] believe that the traffic prob
lem could be materially lessened In
a spirit of cooperation among all
( those who have TO deal with the sit
uation, with the idea in mind that
the traffic officers are not the sworn
enemies Of the drivers and that all
drivers are not wi!lful and deliberate
violators Of the law. a better under
standing will, no doubt, result in the
better observance of the law
If not, punitive action must be
/ taken.