Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-12
BY DONALD A. CRAIG.

In its study Of the automobile parking
and garage problem in Washington,
particularly in the downtown business
section, the Automobile Parking Com
mittee, comprising a membership rep
District Government and local trade and
civic bodies. had so-called Gordon
count" made to show the actual load
upon the central district accurately and
1.-The relation of the automobile and
parking use to other forms Of transpor-
tation" in detail.
This Gordon count" consisted of re-
cording every person entering or leaving
the central business district between &
O'Clock in the morning and o'clock in
the evening, including the streets used
and the means of transportation. II
was explained by Charles w. Eliot, di-
rector of city planning, who represented
the National Capital Park and Planning
Commission in the drafting of the re-
port for the committees approval, that
all details were recorded by half-hour
periods. thus indicating fluctuations
during the day"
Thursday. April "a, 1880, was the day
selected for this study. The weather
was fair and the temperatures ranged
from cool to warm. Ninety-three check
services Of more than $50 observers and
supervisors.
Hard to Get Force,
To find q field force Of such proper
tions for one days work the committee
discovered to be no easy task. It was
accomplished In part by the co-opera-
ton Of members of the school-boy pa
troll Of the public schools, who were
paid for their work by the American
Automobile Association.
praise for their intelligence, accuracy
and trustworthiness," commented the
committee.
Metropolitan policemen supervised
the checkers. All street car passenger
movements were checked by trained en-
ployes of the two local street railway
companies and the bus lines by their
operators. The District Traff1c Bureau
supplied field forms and additional
supervisory assistance.
Computations" adds the report,
"have proved the study to be one Of un-
usual accuracy, and, due to the cordial
for technical office work, at Insignificant
cost"
During the 10-hour period of the cor
don count there were q total Of 268, 669
vehicular movements in and out of the
central district. These included 228, 087
passenger automobiles, 38,698 trucks and
1884 horse-drawn vehicles.
Large VehicuIar Traffic.
This reveals an unusually large vol
ume of vehicular traffic for a city Of
the population of Washington" the re-
port declares, land indeed places 1t
among the cities of foremost traflc &C
tivity regardless Of SIZE
Compilations prepared by the techni-
cal experts working for the committee
show that there is one vehicular move
ment In and out of the central district
for each Ia persons composing WASH
ingtons population, which Is q "far
lower ratio than that for the other cities
considered and which indicates that the
automobile plays an unusually import
ant part In central district transporta-
ton"
The rapidity with which trafic is
developing, according to the investi-
gators, Is shown by comparison of the
Gordon study just completed with that
conducted by Mcclellan and Junkers
Field Organization in 1925. Between
the same hours of the day the earlier
study, conducted April 80 Of that year.
showed the movement of only 10000
passenger cars, trucks and horse-drawn
vehicles in and out Of an area. over
twice the size Of the central district
chosen for the latest study.
This tremendous load" says the
committee, sis not applied In uniform
manner. If 1t were divided into 10