Evening star., 1932-03-06
Roads Not Built for 1t.

Roads Not Built for 1t.
And the roads of today, with a
few widely isolated exceptions,
are not built for the speeds OF
which the automobiles are cap
able.
Were the roads built for such
speeds, there is no doubt in the
minds of the motor car manu-
facturers that their cars would,
hour after hour, roar along the
highways at speeds in the neigh
borhood of 80 miles an hour. And
that would be getting the great
American public places in hurry.
But it is a dream, and only
dream, and until better roads are
built, the public must chug along
at the same old cruising speed of
from so to go, and watch its step
on curves and on the straight
aways, for careless drivers, huge
trucks, hurrying buSseS, and,
last, but not by any means least,
speed cops.
We were talking some time ago
with Capt. ]. S. Irving, the Brit
iSh motor wizard, who designed
and supervised the building of
the motor in the late Sir Henry o.
D. Segrave'S car which brought
super speed out onto the front
pages and into the British peer
age. Capt. Irving said Sir Henry's
231 miles an hour, which stood
until Sir Malcolm Campbell came
along with a bigger burst of
speed, was a mere matter OF tires,
not Of automobile engines.
Cars That Will Go 400.
Mathematically and mechanic
ally, he said, cars can be built to
do up to 400 miles an hour with
the present knowledge of motor
building.
But his plant was the same as
that of every American who owns
a car that will do 80 or better.
There's no place to do it," he
said.
Daytona Beach has a nine-mile
stretch of smooth sand that is
only in the best of shape for
speed trials at certain times of
the year. Those nine miles con-
stitute probably the best and
safest place for an automobile
speed trial in the whole world.
They are a fine nine miles, but,
unfortunately, there are not
enough of those miles.
Flashing along the sand at
speeds in excess of $50 miles an
hour, an automobile covers those
nine miles in an amazingly short
space of time. The race is run
almost before it is fairly started.
Those same cars which Segrave
and Campbell used, would do far
better than their standing rec
ords show were they given a little
time to get rollin'."
Capt. Irving predicted some
four years ago he would some day
see motor busses running along
the roadways of this country at
100 miles an hour, offering the
airlines and the trains serious
competition in speedy transporta-
ton.
100 Miles an Hour Buses.
There isn't a doubt in the mind
of any bus manufacturer that he
can build a bus that will make
and maintain such a speed on
long runs, but he doesn't build
such buses, simply because there
are no roads where such speed
could be reached and maintained
in safety.
When there are six and eight
lane highways between the prin-
cipal cities of the country there
will come such high speed bus
transportation with just as much
safety as is secured with buses
that stay within the 40 and As
miles an hour limits of these
days.
John L. Train, chairman Of the
board of commissioners Of the
American Mutual Alliance, In a
statement issued through the
National Conference on Street
and Highway Safety, has this to
say OF man and his control of
the machines of his own crea-
ton:
THE question of mans ability
to curb the machines of his own
creation is emerging from the
field of academic discussion into
that of hard reality. The auto
mobile, as the price of the pleas
ure and convenience which it af-
fords us, took a toll of $4,000 lives
during 1880 and over 100000 were
injured. Despite an organized
safety campaign the number of
dead and injured rose during
1881, and over $4,000 persons paid
with their lives for the adyan-