Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-09-23
ROADS ROUTED
AROUND CITIES
New England Succeeds in
Avoiding Traffic
Congestion.

While officers of the National High
way Association are talking about a
main arterial highway between Wash
ington and Portland, Me-, whose main
feature will be method of by-passing
the roadway around large cities Ell
[ route. road authorities in Massachu-
sets and Connecticut have already.
without ostentation and blowing Of
horns, accomplished this result in the
tllickly settled industrial sections of
these States.
It is almost essential that travellers
by automobile, wishing to average $50
miles or more each day, avoid the con-
gestion of heavy traffic in cities and
towns along the route in order that
sufficient road speed may be maintained
to keep up the average. This cannot
be done il considerable time is lost iii
cities and small municipalities.
Two Days to Boston.
From Washington the City of Boston,
in the land of the sacred cod, is two
comfortable days driving The distance Is
slightly less than 500 miles by the con-
ventional New k-Hartford-Spring-
Worcester route. 1t lies over we'll
paved roads, and includes passage
through the justly famous Holland Tun-
mel under the Hudson River. 1t ap-
pears that south of New York, except
for an uncomfortable detour around
the City of Philadelphia. the motor
authorities have not yet learned how
to bypass through travellers around
Tt,k nff hn
torist passes through New Haven, the
city of learning on Long Island Sound,
in central Connecticut, the by-paSses
start Hartford. Conn.,; Springfield and
Worcester, Mass, are all by-paSSed on
the road to Boston, thereby avoiding all
the city traffic in these busy industrial
New England places. The road right
through from Washington to Boston Is
very we'll marked, and the attainaole
speed limit is high enough to permit
steady driving between IS and 40 miles
an hour without the unwanted minis
trationS Of the ever-present motor cycle
cop.
But-and what big but it is--those
cities through which the traveller must
pass are very poorly equipped with
signs to aid the stranger motorist on
his way. Chief offender in this respect
is New York, which one believes would
be the best equipped in this regard. II
the traveller elects to go into New Eng
land by the Yonkers-P oughkeepSie route
through western Massachusetts and the
Berkshire hills, he finds little to guide
him in New York City.
Guide Posts Lacking.
If he chooses the shore route through
Pelham, Greenwich. Stamford and New
Haven, he also finds a startling lack of
suitable guide posts to put him on The
main road. If he is totally unfamiliar
with New York, he is lost in maze of
traffic going ii: all directions, and If he
has not seen the way the traffic lights
operate in New York ne may run into
trouble. New York policemen. however,
are kindly disposed toward the traveller
and patiently explain the somewhat I'M
usual manner in which the metropolis
operates its traffic signals.
OF course in New York the avenues
run north and south along the length
of Manhattan, while the numbered
streets run east and west The motoriS5
travelling north or east may run along
one of these avenues without trouble,
? but the rub comes where he attempts
to turn into the Poughkeepsie road or
turn east into Rye and nearby Connec-
ticut. The natural assumption would be
that all the through routes would DE
marked That they are not is discour:
aging, for to be lost in city the size of
New York is an uncomfortable feeling,
to say the least.
Traffic Moves Fast.
New York traffic moves fast. 1t must
In a city of that size. for traffic must
be kept moving at all costs. For this
reason the petty little traffic ills that
seem to peeve the Washington Police
Department and go far to make the life
of the Washington motorist thing of
{ trivial, little, no-account troubles place
New York in class by itself in so far as
the matter of keeping traffic moving is
concerned New York policemen paw
ro attention to such little matter as
crumpled fender or violation of a
minor traffic offense. If a fender is
crumpled at a Washington street inter-
section there follows much business Of
pow-wowing, gathering witnesses, a call
down by the traffic officer and possibly
a trip to court. with its loss of time and
lersonai inconvenience. But in New
York and other large Eastern cities such
things are too small to bother about
The policemen simply don't pay any at
tention to them, unless they are asked
to interfere. So traffic keeps moving
without the little trivialities that inter-
fere with progress in the Capital.