Evening star., 1925-03-29
UNIFORM HIGHWAY
MARKING IS URGED
Safety OF Motoring Public
Demands National Code,
A. A. A. Declares

Lack of uniformity in danger and
road signals on national highways is
responsible for many automobile ac-
cidents. according to a statement Is
sued by the American Automobile AS
sociation urging the immediate adop-
ton of a national highway marking
code.
A study of the road-marking sys-
TENS of the 4S States made recently
by the A. A. A. revealed a wide diver
sity of signals and signs. The ma
terial was embodied in an illustrated
pamphlet designed for use by the
various forces now working to OBJ
tain uniformity, such as the Hoover
Safety Conference, the engineering
standards committee. the joint com
mittee composed of highway officials
and representatives of the Bureau of
Public Roads, automobile clubs and
chambers of commerce.
Urge Nationwide Move.
The American Automobile Associa-
tion is urging its 700 member and af-
filiated clubs to get behind a national
movement to standardize and bring
uniformity into the hazard signals on
highways. Pointing out the need for
Immediate action, Thomas P. Henry,
president of the national association,
described the situation relative to
highway signs as highly alarming
and standing menace to every user
of the roads"
The investigation" said Mr.. Henry,
''has thrown fresh light on one of the
contributing causes of automobile ac-
cfdents. Instead of having one ma
tional highway system, we
have now practically as many sys-
TENS as there are States, while not
infrequently the wayfarer runs into
marked differences of practice within
the same State. Even with regard to
the most serious accidents hazards
such as railroad crossings. through
roads and curves, there is practically
no uniformity. The motorist runs
into every kind of design, color and
symbol, and he must learn a new set
of hazard signs whenever he goes into
new territory. This lack of uniform
ity, which is the bane of the high
ways today, applies to all signs and
the distance and direction signs as
well.
Safety of Millions at Stake.
The situation confronting the au-
tomobilist on the highways today re-
sembles that which would exist IL the
railroads of the United States had
different type of block signal, warn
ing sign and crossing signal for every
State in the Union, except that as
compared with the motorist the rail-
roads would still have an advantage
in that trains are run on protected
rights of way, in charge of trained
crews and under an orderly train dis
patching system. On the other hand,
whereas the railroads carried $1,000
100000 passengers over a distance of
one mile in 1924, it Is conservatively
estimated that automobiles carried
$50. 100000 passengers.
Proper road marking is essential
to maximum service, while poor road
marking and the variety of signs for
the same purpose constitute a stand
ing menace to every motorist. The
inevitable reaction of the motorist to
the confusing variety of signs is that
while motoring he misses the warn
ing for bad curve or a sunken road
entirely, and is further confused by
the prevalence of commercial signs,
many of which specifically initiate
warning signs. Up to the present the
business of marking the highways
has been intrusted to a variety of
automobile clubs and even adver-
tisers. There was all the room in the
world for experimentation. There
was no uniform legal obligation on
one single body. Many States have
not yet adopted a standard marking
system OF any kind, and an extraordi-
nary amount of diversity has crept
into the posting system Of the States