Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-10-27
An Important Case.

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An appeal against three rulings on
traffic cases by the local Police Court
has been filed with the Court Of APP
peals by the District government The
test cases concern the right of the
District Commissioners and the di.
rector of traffic to bar horse-drawn
and solid.tired vehicles from certain
streets in Washington. In the Police
Court the local authorities were de.
clared to be without power to promul-
gate such a regulation and in the ap-
peal which is now being taken the
Government seeks to show that the
Commissioners not only have the au-
thority to make police regulations for
the protection and saving Of life, but
that Congress specifically delegated
to the traffic director power to make
reasonable regulations" for the ex-
petition of traffic in Washington.
1t is important that these cases
should be ruled upon by the Court Of
Appeals. and 1t is gratifying that the
Commissioners have decided to push
the matter to final accounting
There would seem to be no doubt that
Congress, in the code for the District,
gives the local government as repre-
scented by the Commissioners the
power to make police regulations
There likewise appears to be no con-
troversy over the newly given au-
thority to the traffic director to make
reasonable" regulations. This clause
in the traffic act was clarified during
the last session Of Congress in order
that disputes over the various phases
Of the traffic directors power would
not occur.
If the Court of Appeals rules af
firmatively on these two contentious
the whole proposition will resolve
itself into whether or not the regula-
ton is reasonable" Congress can
not and will not pass a specific traffic
code for the District. There is no pos
sible way that a satisfactory set of
regulations could be produced from a
body that has had so little oppor-
tunity to study the day-by-day needs
of a city the size Of Washington. and
one that offers so many divergent
views on the proper handling of traf.
fic. This authority, therefore, is dele
gated to traffic specialist who is
familiar with the situation as it con-
Germs the District of Columbia and
who not only operates an automobile
here, but makes his residence in this
city for twelve months in the year.
In considering the reasonableness of
the regulation barring horse-drawn
and solid.tire vehicles from certain
fast.traffic streets it should be borne
in mind that only in Washington is 1t
an experiment. Other cities, for
long period of time, have enforced
such traffic rules to the manifold bene-
fit of the majority of the users Of the
streets. This regulation was recon.
mended by the traffic Office and
adopted by the Commissioners after
an investigation had convinced both
groups of officials that it was not only
reasonable but would mean the ex-
pediting of travel and an additional
safety factor in the conduct of traffic.
On the automatically lighted streets
vehicles of the type which were
banned by the regulation were found
to obstruct the free movement OF traf-
fic. Neither the horse-drawn wagons
nor the solid-tired trucks were able to
keep up with the procession and move
according to the staggered system of
control lights. Inasmuch as Washing
ton is conceded to have one of the
finest systems Of control of any Amer
lean city and one that has been widely
copied since its inauguration, the reg
ulation barring slow-moving vehicles
was hailed by the majority of motor
lists here as a progressive step in car
rying out the modern theory of re-
ueving congestion.
The importance Of a final ruling on
these matters cannot be exaggerated.
Neither the Commissioners nor the
traffic director should be hampered In
the setting up Of desirable rules for
traffic movement. Washington has
outgrown, long ago, the small-town
haphazard method of regulating it's
automobile traffic. 1t is necessary,
therefore, that those in the closest
touch with the situation should have
authority to promulgate such regula-
tons as are found proper to expedite
and control traffic in a city of a half
million residents.