New Britain herald., 1927-12-03
THE OBSER VER- Makes Random Observations
 On the City ano Its People

!
 least temporarily, but the fevcrish
 desire to make nonstop trip through the district of traffic lights
 still continues. About once in the
 life of every motorist comes the op-
 portunity to dash madly from one
 end of the center to the other with out meeting the maddening red
 light. But usually the passage is
 more halting, something like this:
 You come down Park street in an
 effort to reach the corner of Elm before the green light disappears,
 but as you draw abreast of the
 American Hardware office the am- presence of a cop on the sidewalk that you are not going to get by that light without waiting. After an almost intcrminable pause you
 at last get the green flash again.
 and find that the last vehicle in from Franklin square was a heavy truck, which is too slow to follow in comfort and too broad to pass
 in safety. You follow this along at just the right pace to catch the red light at Main and Chestnut streets,
 and another hiatus in your progress occurs.
 Of course. the red light doesn't last forever, but it seems as if it did and you make so quick a break on the amber that you stall your en- zine. This leaves you helpless in the middle of the street with growing line of honking cars behind | you, for of course the motor picka this particular time to refuse a quick re-start. When 1t does choose to run again the ruddy glow halts you still longer.
 This light not being In unison with that at the lower end of Gen. | tral square, you find the red await | ing you there when you arrive. De termincd not to have your motor stall again, you feed it too much gas at the change 10 green and you
 barely miss running down q woman. This draws an iratc policeman from the curb, and the resulting tongue flashing and replies of "Yes, chief" last through some six successive col or changes of the traffic light, and then you are free again.
 A Hartford car swinging into , Church street blocks your way at i the National bank corner, and you 1 have to wait again, cnly to have the same trick pulled on you by q Stan ley Quarter trolley in front of the city hall. You are now behind West Main street car. and this and you are both held up at Washing ton street when taxi draws out from the curb in front of the Bur ritt hotel. A line of parked autos prevents yon from passing the trol- ley, but it seems certain that you will reach the High street light in good time. Yet. at the last moment, a shopper steps out from the curb and halls tho trolley, so your aver age remains perfect. The trolley goes again at tho green light and you attempt to fofs low, positive that nothing can hold you back now. But just then the light does q quick change back 10 amber, where it remains. and q clang and screech from downtown tell you that there is q fire and that you are going 10 be right where you are for the next five minutes.
 Since the municipal garage in the rear of police headquarters was built, departments controlling auto mobiles have been billed monthly for storage, repairs, gas, oil, clean ing, etc., the task requiring consd- erahlc clerical work and much book keeping, yet there has been no ad- vantage unless it is, more accurate system of cost accounting.
 It seems to many who follow municipal affairs that this is q need less waste of time and effort and that an appropriation should be made to the municipal garage com mission sufficient to cover the costs of caring for cars without billing de- partments.
 They argue there is no moro sense to having departments charged monthly for this service than there would be to sending the fire depart- ment a statement showing the amount of water used annually in fighting fires and cEacting the usual water tax. After all, it is pointed out, it is merely a case of taking money from one pocket and putting it in another.
 It would not increase the budget since it is not adding new item, all departments having included in their estimates in this and previous years, items to cover automobile maintenance. These would merely be taken out and included under one account, that to be the appropriation 10 the city garage. If it is desired to determine what departments do not exercise due care with their machines, or what cars are so run down as to make it advisable that they be discarded and new automo- piles substituted, this could easily be learned from the mechanics time cards.
 Should 1t be decided 10 abandon this complicated and seemingly use less bookkeeping, it might be well at the same time to effect another change favored in some Well-inform- ed circles. This would be to place all cars under the direct control of the garage commission. Under this scheme, the mechanic would be in a position to order q car brought to the garage for repair at any time or refuse to permit machine to be taken out when work is needed. This would prevent minor diiIlcult- ies from developing into greater me chanical problems, as has often nap They've now patched up their quarrel