The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1925-08-01
With The
|Alibi
Stop" Signs Seem to
Miss Their Purpose
During Some Hours
on Conn. Ave.
Cause ''Neck of Bot
tie" Jam
BY DONALD McDOUGAL


washington Railway and Elec-
trio Company, says that $4,000
people travel daily in his cars.
Anyone who has ever wiggled
up to the fare-box of Mount
Pleasant car around half past
four in the afternoon. will cor
roborate Mr.. Hams statement.
They'll swear that most Of the
10000 are bound for Connecticut
avenue ports.
Along where Eighteenth street
intersects, Connecticut avenue
has grown right busy lately. It's
a sort OF a eck-of-the- bottle af-
fair for motor traffic from Chevy
Chase, Cleveland Park and way
stations; all the big territory
drained by Massachusetts avenue
across Rock Creek, and Mount
Pleasant by way of Nineteenth
street, in addition to the $4,000
strap hangers.
Then there's the Mayflower
Hotel, with its swarms,e of taxis
like flies buzzing Tnola sses jug,
and right along theresis the heart
of the auto sales-room district.
Eighteenth street cuts the neck
of the bottle just about half in
two-midWay between the May.
flower and Dupont circle.
And Eighteenth street IL right
busy, too, during the morning and
evening rush hours. The rest OF
the day 1t says down to the level
of most residential streets.
Now here's the plot: Connect
cut avenue, with its all-day-and.
half-the-night traffic of taxis and
private cars, its street railways
with their $4,000 all
must stop when they cross
Eighteenth street at any time,
day or night, because for an
hour or two, morning and eve.
ming, Eighteenth street is busy
And at that a good slice Of
Eighteenth streets traffic switch.
es off down Massachusetts, ave-
nue., and never reaches the
bottIe-neck at all.
It's hard to understand why a
residential street with no car
tracks and with heavy traffic
only for an hour or two daily,
should have the right Of way
over a business street with con-
tinually used car tracks and a
pretty heavy traffic otherwise,
sixteen hours out OF twenty-four
On Fourteenth street we find
a similar unnatural condition.
The thousands of workers daily
coming into the business section
by way Of the street cars there
must stop at Rhode Island ave-
nue., whether there is anything
to stop for or not. And like
Connecticut avenue, Fourteenth
street is busy all day long, while
Rhode Island avenue Is rushed
only during the morning and
evening peak hours.
Holding up a string of street
cars, each carrying a hundred
passengers or SO, to let pass a
handful of Ford roadsters and a
bootlegger's delivery car or two,
is a traffic sight that you won't
find outside of Washington. And.
unless we're a long way off our
guess, you won't find it in Wash
ington much longer, either.
For the first few days the
grotesque arrangement amused us,
and no one took it seriously,
but now the novelty has worn
off, and we learn that the Dl-
zarre regulation, like the Tennes-
see monkey aw is really to be
enforced, we find more incon-
venience than amusement In the
prospect.
After a few exhibitions, the
tail wagging the dog pales down
to as commonplace and uncom-
Portable a performance as the
dog scratching fleas.
Looks like the directors Of
flee has missed the real purpose
of the boulevard stop system.
An arterial highway Is bcund
to have q good many unimpor-
tant sidestreets intersecting it
so many that the crossing Of
ficers can't be stationed at all
of them. Making J this sma ,
volume of traffic stop at the
busy highway will reduce ac-
cidents, and won't interfere par
ticularIy with traffic movement
there isn't enough on the side
streets to count. And sidestreet
traffic, on the average, won't
have to stop much more than
it would il an officer were
directing it. because travel on
the boulevard is nearly constant.
Where two heavily Travelled
highways intersect, some means
must be devised for giving the
right-of-way first to one ana
then to the other.
Letting one busy street have
continual right-of-way over an
other busy street is bound to
breed troubk.
But when a street with con-
stantly used car tracks has to
yield perpetual right of way to
one that hasn't any car track
at all-well, that simply isn't
done.
BAPTIST YOUNG PEOPLE