Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-08-13
ALL MIGHT Street
PARKING BRINGS
FIGHT ON BUSES
Regulation Lacking, District
Officials Are Expected to
Study Problem.
COMPLAINTS OF NOISE
MAY BRING ACTION
Police Unable to Forbid Use Of
Highways for Terminal and
Garage Purposes.

Complaints Of night parking Of large
interstate buses on the streets of Wash
ington. with the din incident to stop
ping and starting of the heavy motors
during the sleeping hours, have been
added TO the difficulties of the bus
problem confronting the District Com
missioners and the Public Utilities Com
mission.
Whether this problem can be con-
trolled under the present laws and reg
ulations is doubted by District officials,
and in the general overhauling of bus
regulations by the two bodies 1t will be
taken up for solution.
Regulations Ineffective.
At present there is a traffic regila-
ton prohibiting the parking OF any
vehicle for more than 13 continuous
hours. There is another regulation
forbidding the parking of CONNER
cial vehicles" in front of residences ex-
eept for the purpose of loading or dis
charging merchandise A bus, how
ever, Is not a commercial vehicle
within the meaning Of this regulation,
which applies only to vehicles carrying
and @ tags, for light and heavy
trucks, respectively. The buses carry
l. tags. Neither of these regulations is
sufficient to curb the nuisance COM
planned of
Most of the buses parked on the
streets at night are said to be those
chartered for special trips to Washing
ton, lying over for the return trip. Such
buses are not common carriers" and
dealing with them is the task of the
District Commissioners. The Utilities
Commits sion has control over common
carrier buses.
Thus far, however. the Commissioners
have given no consideration to the mat
ter OF buses parked at night. Traffic
Director William A. Van Duzer. their
representative in traffic matters, has
been concerned principally with matters
affecting the flow of traffic since he
took Office july j. He says that
parked bus makes very little difference
to the movement Of trafic, as it is only
30 inches wider than the ordinary atl-
tomobile. None of his traffic counts
have included parked buses, but have
been confined to the number and di-
rection Of moving vehicles. He expects
| to take no action looking toward get
/ ting parked buses of the streets at
night.
Attacked from New Angle
The Public Utilities Commission is at
lacking the problem of parked buses
from a somewhat different angle. The
sightseeing buses which operate on a
common-carrir basis, that is, which will
accept any passenger who comes along
with the fare and takes a seat, are be-
lieved to be subject to its jurisdiction,
and the commission is now making a
study to determine how many of these
buses there are, what are their move
ments, and where they remain when
parked. Preliminary returns show that
the BUSES Use every downtown street,
with the possible exception CT F and q
streets.
Many of the operators of these sight
seeing buses advertise that they viii
call at hotels for passengers. and as
result they often draw up in front of
the hostelries during rush hours. The
commission is expected to tackle the
problem OF the sightseeing buses at
a future public hearing. and 10 make
some effort to reduce the traffic OBJ
! structions caused by them. So far the
commissions attention has been con-
fined to interstate buses on regular
schedules-the so-called class A busses
which will be barred out of the con-
gested downtown section altogether
next year.