The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1926-02-27
CONDITIONS
HAVECHANGED
IN FEW YEARS
Slow Driver Was Once Con-
sidered Model of Virtue
Different Now
is DECLARED A MENACE
IS Miles an Hour Is COnsid
cred Safe Speed With
-
Competent Driver

more speed and added safety"
High speed and economy "The
menace Of the slow car" More
and more today these phrases are
being heard not only from the
manufacturers Of fast cars but
from police and state officials.
A few years ago all was differ
ent. Drivers stepped on the gas
when no bluecoats were in sight,
but solemnly agreed with the
tongue-lashings administered from
the bench to speeders who got
caught. The slow driver was con-
sdered model of virtue.
But now the slow driver is on
the defensive. One praised as
man careful Of human life, he who
holds to the old speed limit of fiji
teen miles an hour is assailed as
the frequent cause of accidents.
While the old-fashioned speed limit
lis invariably maximum, there is
growing sentiment in favor of mini
mum speed limits of thirty-five
miles an hour for heavily travelled
highways.
Rhode Island Blazes Trail
A minimum speed, it is argued.
would eliminate the dangers Of
passing slow cars and also make
for more efficient use of expensive
, roads.
The minimum speed limit for
arteries in cities is no new thing,
but it was an innovation in state
. highway rule last June when Col.
/ r. st. j. Chaffee, Chief of the state
police in Rhode Island, announced
| that thirty-five miles an hour
would be the minimum speed for
heavy travelled highways. At a
conference of police officials Of al
most every city in the state it had
been decided that this rate was
| "safe and sane" with competent
drivers under proper conditions! The
roads had been built at great cost,
Col. Chaffee said, and were too ex-
pensive to be cluttered up with
slow moving traffic.
Robbins b. Stoeckel, commissions
err OF motor vehicles Of Connecticut,
is another enemy of the slow car,
and he is supported to some ex-
tent in this by state law which
went into effect last summer en-
poWering him to refuse registration
to cars unable to maintain a speed
OF twelve miles an hour.
A slow car is the greatest men,
ace there is on the highway, Mr..
Stocked maintains. As part of
a reasonable rate-of-speed, law it is
necessary to make speed regula-
tlons on Il minimum basis, so that
only those cars that make a reason
able traffic speed will be allowed on
the highway, he told recent meet
ing of the Society of Automotive
Engineers in Philadelphia.
], 1t is almost impossible for human
nature to stand the strain Of follow
ing slow car indefinitely and
sooner or later an attempt will be
made to pass, with hazard that in
creases with congestion of traffic,
he argued. On highways with
heavy congested traffic Stoeckel
advocates that the speed rule be
that the average speed of the lir :
is the reasonable speed for tina
highway, the slowest vehicle set
ting the pace and passing from be-
hind allowed.
| 1t will soon be necessary, he said
to route slow vehicles such as
heavy freight trucks, over the less
congested highways.
!; To-day highways are built wide
enough to make safe speeds Of
, thirty-five miles an hour" says 8
well-knOwn car manufacturer. The
current type of automobile, with
four-wheel brakes and easy steer
. ing, is flexible and secure at sucl
speeds. Traffic regulations, on tn,
, other hand, are much the same u.
. they were years ago when car.
were not built to meet present da,
demands. In most states the,
, could be modernized to the benefit
; OF every one.
BY failing to keep up the speed
limit on country highways the Slow
driver causes general paralysis o,
traffic which works a hardship OF
f other drivers, causes c0nGestio,
E and makes all driving much NOR,
), dangerous.
E This driver who loafs along q
: fifteen miles an hour slows up hun
: dreds of cars which have the choic,
OF tagging behind or Of taking
! chance by speeding around tlAa SLOW
one in the face Of oneoming treffic
Il the slow driver would 1peed III
4 or turn off the road, the cars Be
n hind would soon be well spread on
e and every one would make bette
time q