Evening star., 1929-06-09
MOTORISTS DIGEST
BY CLAYTON GRAFT.

A committee of the national con-
ference On street and highway safety,
which was organized in 1924 by the
then Secretary of Commerce, Herbert
Hoover, to analyze street traffic, pre-
rared 2 model municipal traffic code
in 1923 which has been placed III the
hands CT all authorities having control
over traffic On public streets or high
ways. This was supplementary and in
harmony with the uniform vehicle code
prepared in 1926 for adoption by the
States. Substantial parts of the code
are now in effect in some Is States and
quite a number of our municipalities
have been able to adopt the new or
dinance with few changes to meet
local conditions. A subsequent report
endeavoring to establish a more uni
form system of street signs, signals and
markings, prepared for the conference
by a committee CT the American En-
gineering Council, has been released.
going into much detail, and so designed
as to convey directions to motorists and
others quickly and clearly at the exact
time and place when needed. Even
though these signs, signals and markers
be placed and used as recommended,
they will be of little value unless care
fully observed and needed by all that
use the highways. The object of the
conference has always been to increase
the safety of pedestrians and vehicles
without seriously retarding the flow of
traffic, especially at congaSted inter-
sections. The efforts so fsr have been
mostly TO regulate vehicular traffic, but
recent developments and statistics on
accidents reveal that 1t is quite neceS-
sary to launch a campaign to educate
as well as control both the pedestrian
and mctorist in the use of the streets
and highways. There has been some
fear attached to solving these problems
lest too much regulation will likely
divert the impatient driver to the side
streets where a sudden increase of
traffic would make new danger, es-
peclally where children are accustomed
to using ssSese less travelled thorough
fares as Fairgrounds.
The traffic commissioners of Detroit
Mich, recently held a four-day cam
paign in his city, with a squad of
especially qualified police officers, when
they stopped about $500 motor cars
indlscriminately in various sections of
town. A tabluation of these inspections
revealed such large percentage of
cars in daily use on the streets that
were unsafe it was decided TO have
another test over a longer period in
5n endeavor to have sufficient data to
ask for an ordinance to keep such cars
off the streets and highways Their
findings of this first test found about
13 per cent with defective or loosely
adjusted brakes that cars could not be
stopped in a reasonable distance; is
per cent with steering gear decidedly
defective and a real menace: l per
cent we're without horn or signaling
cevice; per cent were without lights
or had defective lights. l per cent of
windshield Wipers were Of no use; 2
Per cent of rear view mirrors were use
less: l per cent of license plates were
improperly installed or could not be
read; 1l2 per cent Of the operators had
no permits
The operating conditions of the cars,
aside from the parts mentioned, was
not taken into consideration, although
that may be gone into and investi-
gated at later date. To put it another
way, only about five cars in six on the
streets of Detroit are really safe.
Without a chsck-up 1t is impossible
to tell what exists in other parts OF
the country, but it is only reasonable
to suppose that the ratio Of defective
motor cars will be found about the
same.