Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-10
DETER TRAFFIC.
PROGRAMS NEEDED
Increase in Autos Makes
Speed and Parking Facili-
ties More important.


ways, city streets of adequate width,
elimination of bottlenecks almost re-
gardless of expense, and making avail
bile the year around many roads which
Today are seviceable only during favor
7ble weather are foremost and vital
factors in the improvement OF good
roads and traffic conditions in the
United States according to the foremost
traffic engineers Of the country.
The year 1929 will witness the addi-
ton of 1.0oo.0 900 to 1880, 900 more mo-
tor vehicles within our boundaries.
Provision must be made not only ade-
'lately to care for them but to provide
better facilities for the 25,000,000 al
ready in use.
Downtown merchants must see that
sufficient parking facilities are provided
accessible to their stores or find more
md more business moving to the
suburbs.
Roads Pay for Selves.
The public rapidly is realizing that
Proper roads more than pay their cost
In enhanced value of surrounding prop
eTtv alone. Were that not true. the
PUBLIC would still be entitled to facili-
les enabling it to move quickly, COM
fortably and safely from one place to
another by means of individual and
mass transportation.
How the increased value Of adjacent
property more than Offsets the cost Of
road Improvements is wildly illus
trated in North Carolina. which today
has some of the finest through roadways
in America. The living standards Of its
people have been vastly bettered. hun
dreds of millions of dollars in tourist
trade have flowed consistently into the
State, better homes have replaced
noorer ones, and the entire State has
hecome a foremost exponent of how
improved city streets and highway roads
have contributed back directly to the
greater well-being of its entire people
WeStchester County, NJ Y, located
inst north of New York City, has found
that its highway system has been more
than paid for by the increase in land
values. From 1924 to 1927 it expended
t3.750000 on highway work During
the same period its land values in
creased $500, zoo, 000
The superhighway is the most efficient
roadway yet known for the rapid, safe
transport of traffic volume The day is
rot far distant when superhighways will
furnish the accepted method of fast
travel between our great metropolitan
ereaS. AS each roadway accommodates
only one-way traffic, the superhighway
Immediately obviates those types of ac-
e'dents caused by one car cutting out
Of line and clashing an on-coming car,
end those in which the pedestrian is
caught between two opposite moving
traffic lines. It also permits the use,
Ia times of extraordinary traffic flow, of
greater percentage of the total avail
eble road space, since no lanes need be
kept open for traffic moving in the
opposite direction.
The Superhighway would not deserve
the attention it is bound to secure if
It's only advantage were the facilitation
# intercity traffic. Frontage along
euperhighways already constructed and
n operation has grown enormously in
~alue. Property values three miles or
more away from the road itself have
also appreciated greatly.
Regard for Pedestrian.
The superhighway also has regard for
the pedestrian. Because of its island in
he center, the pedestrian need cross
but one side of the highway before
fgain reaching safety. Traffic lights
may be spaced at necessary intervals
both for pedestrian safety and for cross
traffic. They need to handle traffic
moving only in one direction and In
many instances can be so synchronized
that the bulk of motor traffic can be
continuously moving.
There are, in all, some 3,000,000 miles
Of roads in this county-good, bad and
Indifferent. If all were disable the year
round there would be little or no cause
Or complaint. But some II per cent Of
hem are unimproved in any way. An
ether 10 per cent have been graded and
'rained. Seventeen per cent have some
sort of impermanent surfacing. About
, per cent are year-round, all-weather
Dads. made from base to crown accord
:,g to dictates of the most thorough
scientific highway engineering.
These per cent are the roads that
carry the nations trafic. The Bureau
# Public Roads survey showed that IS
Ter cent of the countrys entire highway
fraffic is carried over 6 per cent OF its
total highway mileage.
For many years mileage has been
he major goal in road building. II, at
The years end, the State reported the
construction of several hundred miles
IF new roads, its citizens felt they had
we'd up to their progressive reputation
Cut In certain instances those roads
we're too narrow In other, no provision
was made for widening as traffic volume
grew. Again, politics has dictated
where they should be built. The lesser
reed was met first and the greater side
sracked for votes, for political friends
0r for other selfish ends.
Adequately to meet the situation II
5 necessary to think in four terms
Width, capacity and proper location
7ome first. Roads must be built to
rithstand the punishment inflicted by
he heavy traffic of motor buses and
Srucks. To these physical properties OF
myth, width and thickness another
dimension, time, must be added. And
ime Is something which can be de.
'ermined only by the factors OF traffic
~olume, directness of route and the
'iapediments which may be encounter.
ed along that route.
$3.50, 100000 in Auto Taxes.
Motor car owners paid s760 900 ,o0C
N motor vehicle taxes in 1927, accord
ng to the National Automobile Cham.
Der Of Commerce. They probably paid
more In 1928 because of the greater
number Of cars in operation and the
more nearly universal gasoline tax
despite the lifting of the Federal excise
tax on new cars, which the automobile
industry finally was successful, after
Tears OF effort, in having wiped out
On the other hand, something more
han $l:l00. 100000 was spent in 1872
Scientific fabrication