Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-07-19
YHAT with a new left turn
that will bring the Ma
NJ 90 -

THAT WIN q new leIJ GuIH
M that will bring the Ma
" tional Capital into traffic
procedure with most of
The balance of the country, new
title law rigid and drastic In lts
provisions. traffic lanes, proposed
elimination of few of the pesky
traffic lights that have slowed up
motor traffic for many months,
and much work being done on the
highways in and out of the city,
the old town, to use the inelegant
words of the stage comedian,
saint what she used to be-
Innovations in handling trafflc
have come so thick ard fast or
soc-A motorists during the last
few years that their heads must
h. in somewhat of a whirl in the
attempt to keep pace with them.
But all the innovations have been
designed to be of the greatest
good to the greatest number, and,
after all, the inconvenience have
been small. And now comes,
scheduled for mid-September, the
most radical change of all in the
regulations which will affect the
movement of your car and mine
through traffic.
This is the return to the old left
turn. The traffic officers will not
like it in the main, and the old
regime in the Office of the traffic
director held out for two years or
more against it, but it Is coming
nevertheless. Progress in traffic
practice must keep abreast OF
modern thought in expeditions
movement of vehicles If the con-
gested traffic of downtown areas
is to be handled smoothly and
quickly.
Speed Raise Needed.
All that remains for Traffic
Director Van Duzer to do now to
bring Washington traffic regula-
tions up to the advanced thought
noticeable in so many other cities
is to raise the maximum speed
limit permissible in sections other
than the immediate downtown
area to 80 miles an hour, and to
bear down hard on the reckless
drivers who may not exceed the
speed limit, but who by their lack
of care in driving hazard the lives
OF others in the streets.
For many years the statute
books contained the silly regula-
ton that motorists must not cross
street intersections at a speed in
excess of IL miles and hour. OF
course, it was not invoked to any
great extent, but for a time a
veritable reign Of terror came
about because of the activities of
a few policemen who took their
Jobs too seriously and arrested
motorists who broke the law even
though they we're proceeding in
manner which could not possibly
have harmed any one. Fortu-
nately, this and similar other
archaic regulations have gone the
way all outmoded regulations
must go, and now it is lawful for
motorists to cross street intersec-
tions at the legal speed Of % miles
an hour.
But why % miles an hour? Why
not % or 80, and why not permit
35 miles an hour on the outlying
arterial highways? Main arteries,
like Wisconsin avenue, Connect
cut avenue, upper Sixteenth
street, Bladensburg road, PennSyl-
vania avenue southeast, Canal
road and other much travelled
highways now have a speed limit
which is safe and sane, but could
not cause any man to be sorry
You can get far and fairly fast at
80 miles an hour, but you could get
fa k1A fn az NH a
q difference that five miles makes.
Faster Travelling Provided.
Automobile mechanics have
gone far beyond the old outmoded
speed regulations that were good
enough for the motorists Of 10
years gone. Four-Wheel brakes
nov will stop even the heaviest
car in less than two-thirds of the
distance required to stop the older
car braked on the rear wheels
alone. Balloon tires help to stop
skidding and aid in braking. The
public has been educated to higher
speed, and, after all. why not move
1t up a notch higher?
Those motorists who have trav-
eled extensively in other cities
have made the observation time
and again that Notwithstanding
our modern traffic regulations
traffic moves slower here than in
most cities. Blessed with the
natural advantages of wide streets
and many through arteries for
travel, Washington has many
points of advantage over most
cities and yet it is one of the
hardest cities in the East to get
through in fast time.
These speed limits of % and 80
miles an hour now in existence
are fine in theory, but how many
motorists live up to them? Take
drive out Sixteenth street on a
22-mile street any afternoon and
time the car in front of you.
Where he can he goes Is or more
and when he gets in the 30-mile
zone he goes up to 35 So do most
of us usually, and if the motor
cycle officers keep on winking their
eyes at a speed few miles in
excess of the legal speed no one
cares. But why not make it legal
and then we shall not be always
looking in our rear-vieW mirrors
fearful that a motorcycle will
putt, putt" up behind us with the
stern admonition to pull over to
the curb?"
Slowness Provoking.
Haven't you gone out for a
drive in the country any after