Evening star., 1928-02-19

| years in New York, where the
croSStown street car lines are
few and where uptown surface
lines are limited. and where sub
ways handle the great bulk of the
human traffic which moves down
into the man-made canyons be-
low Seventy-Second street every
morning and back every evening.
collaborating with the elevated
railways to solve ManhattanS
tremendous traffic problem. He
is well aware that Washington.
where far more attention is paid
to eSthetic considerations than
New York. presents a different
problem. and that the unlovely
steel girders Of an elevated road
way would be extremely unwel-
come above the thoroughfareS Of
the Capital. So. he has taken the
other tack. and suggested that
! the street car tracks be depressed
below the street level, and placed
| in SubwayS through which the
major portion of the downtown
moving human stream would
travel Pennsylvania avenue be-
tween the White House and the
Capitol would be free of street
cars: there would no longer be
the feared traffic throat" of the
Beeler plan Of a decade ago at
Fifteenth street and New York
avenue: the latter thoroughfare
would be free of street cars for
part of its length. and Fourteenth
street would likewise be relieved
of street car traffic. The Harland
scheme has merit. and Just at this
| time might we'll be considered.
Through the medium of our
valuable exchanges comes word
that two San Francisco men were
run down by an automobile while
they were singing Sweet Ade-
line" 1t seems that out in the
West. where men are men, there
are definite limits on the patience
of motorists. We wonder whether
the pedestrians gave three rous-
ing cheers?
Sunday Motoring.
Again the cry of highway satu-
ration has been raised. Will the
time come when our highways are
so crowded with automobiles that
travel at pleasant running
speed is impossible? Some author
tiles think it will. even Walter P.
Chrysler, who has done quite a
little bit to add to highway Satu-
ration. Any pleasant Sunday
afternoon on any of the good
highways around Washington will
give the motoring public of the
Capital an excellent opportunity
to judge for itself. Try the
Baltimore pike on a Sunday after
noon Or the Mount Vernon road.
or the Frederick pike. or even the
Ellicott City route to Baltimore.
If more automobiles can be
crowded on these roads than jam
them any pleasant Sunday in the
touring season, the time has come
for automobile Shoehorns.
Chairman Charles Moore of the
Commission of Fine Arts sees the
day in the not far distant future
ia matter of year or So) when
many of the roadways now trav-
ersing the Government triangle
will be closed to permit uninter-
rupted carrying out of the
Government building program.
Against this day. he declares,
traffic authorities should plan on
some means of routing traffic
around this area so as to avoid
congestion which in his judg-
ment is bound to occur.
His solution of the problem is
cutting off two parallel roadways
through the Mall. provided for in
the District of Columbia highway
plan and already laid out in parts
Of the Mall. The greatest center
Of congestion, in his opinion, will
be the area near the Center
Market, where automobiles now
are favored with unusually good
parking facilities, but where in
the future bypass roadways from
Pennsylvania avenue south are
apt to be closed. Seventh street
and Ninth street may have to be
closed. although this development
is too far in the future TO be of
absolute knowledge In the mean
time Mr.. Moore hopes the traffic
authorities Of Washington will
work out some plan for by-passing
the traffic.
Already. In his view, the need of
some such scheme has made it.
self manifest by the extraordinary
traf1lc arrangements made neces-
sary by excavations on Pennsyl-
vania avenue between Tenth and
Eleventh streets This situation,
Mr.. Moore holds, is a small scale
example OF what will occur when
the Government building program
gets well under way. AS the traf-
fc situation in this area now
stands, most Of the vehicles NOV
ing east are shunted north
through Twelfth and Thirteenth
streets TO z street. tanning that
comparatively narrow thorough
fare with tecming maze Of
traffic.
AS major part ri his scheme
for education Of the public TO the
causes Of traffic accidents. Mr..
Harland plans 10 work through
citizens associations. bus and taxi
companies, street car companies
and other transportation agencies
10 bring home TO every resident o.
Washington the need for care In
preventing Of accidents. He has
compiled chart showing Just
where traffic accidents have oc-
CURED in the last month and how
they occurred; who was involved
and the probable cause. In those
cases where pedestrians were in
VOWED and strangely enough
hGn ufGfa jFuClnaG ko Inn ~
2l2 accidents of record he plans
~ bring the cases before the citi-
Zens' associations. Similar action
/ Will be taken with the taxi COM
Danies, street car and bus com