Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-26
|CAP|TAL TRAFFIC
| PROBLEMS FACED
| EXPLAINING BODY
Traction Unification Declared
Probable Necessary Step
in Solution.
PROGRAM OF BUILDING
CHANGES FLOW OF CARS
Street Railways Executives Attend
Conference, but Views Are
Not Made Public.

The National Capital Park and Plan
ming Commission may hire an expert in
transit problems as the result of con-
ference held yesterday afternoon in the
Navy Department Building. The re-
location of street car tracks and facili-
ties to meet the needs of the new public
buildings in the triangle will be one of
the primary questions In study of the
whole problem, now under way. Street
car executives and their associates and
members of the commission and its
staff participated in the conference.
Lieut. Col. u. S. Grant, Sd, vice chair
man and executive officer of the Ma
tional Capital Park and Planning Com
mission, and his associates on the staff
will take up the question of the emDloy-
ment OF an expert. Another possibility
that Is being considered is the feasibility
OF going over the past reports on transit
problems that have been made for the
commission to formulate new program.
The concensus of the meeting was
that four of the most important con-
siderations In the study must relate to
the street railways, heavy and light
trucking trafnc, pleasure-car traffic and
bus traffic.
Merger Figures I'm solution.
Any solution of the problem, It was
said, must be based on the idea of one
SsAVSS N1k O0A1P0hy OI upUtl u UIllkIeQ
use OF street car tracks, as additional
trackage in the downtown section of
the city is considered inadvisable. What
the street car executives said about
this phase of the problem in the closed
meeting was not revealed.
ANY tentative plan decided upon will
have to be discussed with Secretary
Mellon, the Board of Architectural Con-
sultants, the District Commissioners
and other interested groups. Conditions
have been altered since the last reports
were made, 1t was said, as additional
large downtown Office structures have
been erected, some new hotels have been
constructed and in many instances the
character of the property affecting the
transportation situation has peen
changed.
Fourteenth Street Is Illustration.
AS an instance of the complexity of
the problem, Capt. Chisholm cited
Fourteenth street, which Is now heavily
laden with traffic, due to the Virginia.
bound cars and the automobiles that
center around the Bureau of Engrav-
ing and Printing during the rush hours.
Onto this busy thoroughfare, he said,
will be thrown additional traffic when
the new Department of Commerce
Building, which will be one of the larg-
est office structures in the world, is
opened. In addition 10 this, Fourteenth
street will be called upon to bear further
extra traffic when the new Department
of Agriculture Building Is put into COM
mission.
Attending yesterdays conference were
John II. Hanna, president of the Capt.
tai Traction Co.; william F. Ham, pres
ident of the Washington Railway &
Electric Co.; Frederic A. Delano, chair
man of the National Capital Park and
Planning Commission; Col. William B.
Ladue, Engineer Commissioner of the
District and commission member; Col
U. S. Grant, Sd: Capt Chisolm, Charles
w. Eliot, I'd, city planner of the COM
mission, and associates of the street
railway executives.
About 1927 traffic and transit survey
was made for the National Capital Park
and Planning Commission by Harland
Bartholomew and associates, traffic and
city planning experts of st. Louis, no.
Other surveys have been made from
time to time, but this is considered the
most extensive ever made here. A
trafic count made a couple of days
ago by the National Capital Park and
Planning Commission, in cooperation
with interested civic agencies, Is now
being studied and correlated with pre-
viously made Investigations.