New Britain herald., 1925-07-27
PARKING AUTOMOBILES HERE AND ELSEWHERE

create more room for the psxking of automobiles. Of course, more room for such purposes Is desirable in any city, but 1t is to be doubte@ whether the widening of streets for such a purpose alone is worth the advantages in increased parking facilities.
 Officials in various cities seem to be of the impression that cities are not obligated to furnish free park ing facilities upon public highways for autoists who leave their cars for hours at time, some of them all day. Yet if business people and shoppers are to use cars In the downtown districts 1t is clear that they must have some place to park them. The anti-parking rules on all main thoroughfares, which are being more strictly enforced every where, including New Britain, fre- quently embarrass car owners ex- ceedingly.
 What to do about it. that Is the question. To widen streets for his purpose alone seems to be rather an expensive proceeding. To widen them to increase the facilities for traffic along them, of course, ls a different matter. We will hear of continual suggestions along these lines in the years 10 come, some of them good and some bad; but as for widening streets in order to furnish free parking space, that is something that should not be at tempted except perhaps under very special circumstances.
 Other cities are faced with simi- lar problems. In Boston, for in stance, a unique proposal has been made-and fostered by the street car transportation interests-having as its object tte lessening of auto- mobile congestion upon the down. town streets, which is receiving widespread attention and much favorable comment, The proposal is to have large parking areas neal
 subway or elevated stations on tho
 outskirts of the city, where autoist'
 from the suburbs or other nearby
 towns can park their cars and ther
 ride into the city upon the subway
 or elevated lines. In this manner
 it is calculated much of the conges'
 ton in the downtown sections would
 disappear. The transportation com
 pany, it is announced, would furnish
 the parking space, doing so in th'
 expectation of getting the dimes O
 the autoists who would prefer t'
 pay a little money rather than risl
 the downtown congestion.
 One can overlook the evident de
 sire of transportation interests t
 gain part of their lost incom
 through the use of automobiles The plan, if carried out could pro
 duce earnings for the compante
 and still be good in it's result to tn nublic. especially as there would b
 no compulsion about the system ; Automobiles would still be per mitted to roll into the congeste areas of large cities and be parke there. It would be those automohll owners who preferred to park thel cars in an outlying parking statlo and ride downtown in the tube wh would help to curb the doUnto"
 congestion,
 Of course, such a system at pre- ent is only intended for large elite where congestion is more inten' = than in the smaller metropoli. B' ] the plan is of interest 10 the aut' . ists of the smaller places who maf -' occasional trips to the larger place y Even now, without the Boston sy tenn generally adopted, it is som V times wise to park ones car at 5 downtown on the electric lines. $ is being done on a small scale present; in all probability 1t will done on a large scale in the nei u future. There is no nuisance in mo- y ern life comparable to that of a 2 tempting to drive through u II 1ou.rtnryn traffic of 8 large city.