Seward daily gateway., 1925-02-28
TRAFFIC CONGESTION SERIOUS HANDICAP
 TO ELECTRIC RAILWAY

WASHINGTON, Feb 27.-A call to the 43,0000OO daily electric railway riders of the United States to rise up and demand traffic congestion re- lief was sounded today by J. N. Shan nahan, president of the American Railway Association. Addressing his Organization in convention here, he declared failure to limit and pro. hibit parking and to restrict traffic to certain channels, was playing ha- voc with electric railway and bus schedules. Four-fifths of all per- sons who ride are patrons of electric railway company owned cars or bus es, and practically all of them are be- ing delayed by small minority of riders in other vehicles, he insisted.
 MT. Shannaha nexplained that he was not seeking to carry persons not owning motor cars against owners. Many car riders are motor car own CTS, who, beset by traffic congestion troubles, are using electric cars and buses.
 Traffic congestion is unspeakable Despite the best efforts of local trans portation companies to provide ser vice, it is virtually impossible nowa- days, by reason of traffic congestion, to maintain any respectable sched- ules in our city streets. The aver age running time of an electric car or bus should be from 10 to 12 miles an hour, and yet in some cities it is impossible, in the downtown sections, to move at greater rate of speed than two miles an hour in any sort of vehicle.
 "The majority does not rule in the case of traffic congestion Oftentimes one person in single vehicle will get in front of car and delay 50 persons in it merely by occupying the track. Again, an unoccupied ve- hicle will be parked in such a posi- tion that it will stop or slow up a ve- hicle containing 60 persons.
 "The traffic problem is not impos- sible of solution, though it admitted ly is difficult For example, there l are two major steps which, if taken would aid very much.
 First: Cease using the streets for storage. They were built to be used as passageways, and not as garages. Some people will, of course, resent not being permitted to store their cars all day long in the streets, but do not forget that when you offend one person by enforcing no parking regulation, you please several hund- red others whose ride has been ac- celerated by it.
 Second: Unscramble traffic. Els tablish regular lanes of travel for the separate lines of traffic and compel the different cOnveyances to stick to their lanes. Let the street car run uulHlpouou on US TdllS ana Hdk6 it a misdemeanor, as has been done in Cleveland and Philadelphia, for any vehicle to get in front of it. Give buses and passenger automo piles the right of way on certain streets or parts of streets. Set aside certain streets for trucks and other heavy vehicles. We do not so much need new streets as the complete use of those we now have"
 MT. Shannahan announced also that in cooperation with Secretary Hoov- CTS accident prevention movement, the electric railway idustry is start ing a nationwide advertising poster campaign. He said that accidents to passengers On cars were being re- duced, but that accidents due to oth- CT vehicles striking electric cars and alighting passengers were increasing.