Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-29
The New Traffic Schedule.

\
No two persons can probably agree on
the adequacy or inadeQuacy of the PEN
alties for each of the seventy-eight
minor traffic violations for which COL
lateral will be required in the future
at the various precinct stations. From
a perusal of the schedule of fines. if the
motoriSt does not care to 60 to court,
however, there would appear to be sew
eral inconsistencies. For instance. the
collateral required for driving through
an uroccupied safety zone is three dol
lars while for driving through an oc-
cupied safety zone is only ten dollars.
/ It would seem to be more equitable
to assess no penalty in the former case,
because life and property are not in
danger, but to plaster at least twenty
| five dollar collateral on the motorist
| who drives through an occupied safety
zone.
Under the new scheme, which by the
| Commissioners order becomes effective
on May /, disobeying a traffic signal
| light calls for a deposit of five dollars.
| Inasmuch as this violation generally in
wolves potential injury or death higher
rate might well be adopted. Any one
who drives against red stop signal
should be forced to shell out" at least
| twenty dollars for his fragrant disregard
lzf .{o1,+ r oF otl
the motorist who defiantly refuses to
give way for fire engines, ambulances
and police emergency vehicles be as
sessed more than the trif1ing ten dollars
which, under the new schedule, is to be
demanded. Firemen have been killed
and serious accidents caused by the bull
headed stupidity of those who decline to
clear the streets for the passage of
emergency apparatus.
Along with the ten-dollar penalty for
driving through an occupied safety zone
is like amount assessed against those
who pass street car stopping for pas
sengers. This penalty should assuredly
be revised upward There is no possible
excuse for a motorist to pass a stand
ing street car. Car riders do not an
ticipate such contingency and are
totally unprepared to dodge motor
vehicle. 1t is one of the worst offenses
against the regulations and should be
punished by not less than twenty-five
dollar collateral.
While it would appear logical that
greater penalty should be assessed in
the aforementioned cases there are some
| in which, with justice, lighter penalty
should be exacted. Passing an over
taken vehicle on the right calls for five
dollars collateral. 1t would be fairer to
fine the motorist who was overtaken
because he was driving slowly in the
middle Of the street and refused to
give way, than it would be to penalize
the person who passed on the right be-
cause passing on the left would in
volve driving on the wrong side of the
street. If the District is to persist in
its obsolete requirement that all vehicles
be overtaken and passed on the left it
should at least make the offense of
keeping to the right and passing on the
right an exceedingly trivial one with a
collateral of not more than two dollars
No differentiation is made in the new
schedule, or in the traffic code itself
for that matter. between parking few
moments abreast with the car attended
or with the car unattended. While it
may be just to charge five dollars for
deliberately leaving a car without an
| operator parked abreast 1t certainly
cannot be as grave an offense II the
driver sits at the wheel ready to move
instantly should occasion arise.
With these exceptions and possibly a
few others the new schedule will prob
ably meet with approval on the part Of
the motorists and will expedite the han
ding of the growing volume of traffic
ofenses. Motorists should read the list
carefully and cooperate in their driving
behavior to the end that they may es-
cape not only visits to the precinct sta
tons for the depositing of collateral. but
appearances In court where much more
! serious penalties may await them.