Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-08-21
CHIEF TRAFFIC PR OBLEM SOLVED
IN LARGE CITIES, OBSERVER FINDS
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whether green or red rules. Yet the
main thoroughfares are not, strictly
speaking, considered stop streets.
There is not a single sign to desig-
nate them as such.
THE signals, working in cycles, are
synchronized, permitting traffic either
east and west or north and south.
Timing is not left to the officer on
duty. He may, however, order traffic
TO move through an empty safety
zone-otherwise a punishab bic offense-
or disregard other regulations for the
sake of speeding up traffic.
No Amber Light Used.
New York uses no amber light as
a warning Of change. Generally, the
green light for the north south traffic
is flashed for 55 seconds there is dark
ness for 5 seconds. and red light for
| 55 seconds. First avenue, with little
cross traffic. shows a green light foc
minutes and 10 seconds in the cycle.
New York doesn't believe in the
No left turn 1t was tried and the
Police Department was deluged with
protests from merchant and truckers.
1t was determined that three vehicles
would be necessary to do the work
| formerly done by two if the distance
necessary to reach permissible left.
turn street were added to the regular
run. That meant the loss of thou
sands of dollars a day. New York
taxi riders added their protests and
their protests carried weight. There
are approximately $4,000 taXicabs OPP
Grating in Manhattan alone. manned
| by ASSOC drivers. The taxi patrons
refused to pay the extra fare for the
| longer distances.
| Forced to accept the situation, New
York experts made the best Of it.
AFTER ALL says Lieut.. Rosenfeld,
permitting man to make a left turn
| gets him off the street as soon as pos
sible. Force him to circle about for
| possible left turn and you keep his
vehicle in motion that much longer
tumble of Machines.
Long lines of cars, drawn to the
| left and along the car tracks await
opportunity at every intersection to
make the turn. Surface cars, still well
patronized for the shorter distances,
are compelled to halt behind the wait
ing lines, sometimes nearly q block
| distant from their unloading point.
While unloading. they, too. halt fol-
| less tumble of crawling motor cars.
jerkily moving street cars and dizzy
flood of pedestrians-whom the higher
New York courts have ruled have
real right and title to the city's streets
and may in no way be restricted or
regulated. In New York streets it is
| the motorist who is present on public
sufferance.
application of the one-way princi-
pie to all east-west streets, it Is adj
mitted, would relieve congestion to a
slight degree, but the plan cannot be
used on car-line streets, since there
| is already necessary travel in opposite
directions.
Parking presents a question to
which New York has but feeble an
swer. On certain busy north and
south thoroughfares parking is gen.
orally prohibited and the prohibition
regularly violated by waiting chauf
feurs. On nine streets south of
Fifty-ninth street parking is prohib.
tied from Z am. to 10 am. and from
pm. to Z pm, Sundays and holidays
not included. In the busiest and most
congested district parking for one hour
is permitted.
Lax Enforcement.
"a New Yorker was giving advice
to the visiting motorist. It's all the
bunk, see?' he said. You park pretty
near wherever you want and as long
as you want. They won't do nothing
to you. They're too busy keeping
these cruising taxis from smashing
people up. If a copper says "fIow
long you been parked here?" give him
a line, boy. You'll get away with it.
And if you don't, see what two
| bucks'll do
Police officials neither deny the ac-
cusation of lax enforcement nor the
effect Of universal overparking on
traffic congestion. Even on fairly
broad thoroughfares there IS barely
room for more than one or two lanes
of traffic to move forward.
''At the curb are the parked auto
mobiles. Next are the lanes occupied
by the slow-moving buses. Next over
is a narrow lane through which for
ward traffic may move. Next is the
line of halted cars waiting to make
| a left turn. and next to that, perhaps.
a surface car line. Actually on either
side of the street traffic may move
forward through a space varying from
to IL feet in width.
THAT Manhattan merchants would
| Immediately exert influence in the City
| Hall to quash any no-parking ordi-
! nance along the main shopping and
| business streets is freely admitted. In
| fact, police officials are inclined to
make virtue of necessity.
Many Tourists i'm Town.
New York, they say, particularly
at this time of the year, is Mecca
| for the whole United States-as Can
ada is to the New Yorker The streets
are filled with cars bearing foreign
license plates. Many man has driven
| into the city with his family, expect
ing little relaxation and enjoyment
Should we show him every courtesy?
Or should we trail him, snatch him
up on harmless violation like park
ing, throw him into court and fine him
heavily? No, we rather pride our
selves on our lenient Interpretation of
the rule. In fact, patrolmen are re-
quested to admonish and warn, rather
than serve summons on the out-State
driver
That's fine of you, to be sure, but
what of the New York driver?'
THE New Yorker will answer: Like
to see taxpayer treated any worse
| than somebody from somewhere else >
says he.
And he doesn't see it,
| while driving conditions in Man
| haitian would theoretically tend to dis
courage the use of the private auto
| mobile as a means of transportation
TO and from the city, it has not actu-
ally done so. In the opinion of police
| officers, it's use is increasing. In add.
hn 81,