Evening star., 1933-11-27
CLERK-REL|EF PLAN
VOICED IN DISTRICT
"White Collar" Idle Included
In Proposal to Check D. c.
Traffic and Streets.

Assignment CT the white collar" un-
employed who will be given jobs under
the District of Columbia emergency re-
lief program to such important duties
as making thorough surveys to deter
mine the need for repairing. straighten-
ing and resurfacing streets and side
walks; traffic counts with view to
more efflcient control system and
speeding up q traffic, and checking on
certain types of buildings Tor taxation
purposes has been suggested to Dis
trict officials.
These duties and others of similar
nature will form useful field Tor for
mer statisticians, bookkeepers, clerks.
typists and other like workers put back
on pay rolls by the relief organization,
it has been suggested to the District
Commissioners by the washington
Board of Trade
The plan, drawn up by the streets
and Avenues Committee of the board
on memorandum prepared by j. ROW.
land Bibbins, one of its members, sug-
gests a varied assortment of duties for
men and women in the professional
class, all of which are intended to bet
ter conditions in Washington.
Plan Is Termed Worth While.
Capt. Howard F. Clark. chairman Of
the District Civil Works Planning
Board, referred the proposal to Director
of Highways H. c. Whitehurst ana
Traffic Director william A. Van Duzer
for study and report. These ofnciais
said yesterday the plan had many
worth while points. Some Of the sur
veys and studies suggested already are
under way. however, they said.
The four major points of the pro-
posed program are: Reconditionlng OF
the street system; traffic development;
Improvement of the traffic signal sys-
tenn, and study of transportation and
distribution.
Under the first point would be in
cluded resurfacing and repairing major
streets and sidewalks, Strengthening
streets and removing distractions,
painting and resetting street and traffic
signs, painting mo parking" curbs to
reduce use of signs, stream lining traf-
fic islands. trimming shrubbery to pre-
serve maximum vision at blind corners
and expediting bypass route construc-
ton TO detOur traf1lC.
Garage Survey Included.
The traffic development phase would
include up-to-date canvass of pri-
yate and public garages and storage
areas, 10 determine capacity ana
available by clearing and building de-
molition: a census of building occu-
pancy, hoorage, number of regular en-
ployes and estimated callers, assembled
by Offices. Government building and
large stores; count of ownership of
parked cars by tag checks to indicate
curb usage by employees and patrons Of
establishments in downtown area; and
a taXicab count to show the volume OF
movement at selected heavy points,
loaded and empty, and the effect of
cruising cabs on street congestion.
For traffic signal improvement it is
proposed that delay counts" should be
made on heavy arteries. measuring the
number of vehicles stopped, the dis
tination and cause, in relation to the
signal cycle used; typical speed counts
on major routes to indicate points or
sections needed to be speeded-up; Pc
destrian counts to show the proportion
of violations in relation to length of
signal and timing, frequency of acci-
dents. ETC.: and reStudy Of progress
sive interconnected signals on heavy
arteries to increase capacity and speed
and reduce traffic delays.
airport Is MAJOR fr0p0saL.
The development OF an airport is the
major point under the transportation
and distribution section, and the COM
mittee recommends that the clearing.
filling and resurfacing of a suitable
airport should proceed with all speed.
Also, the plan proposes a study of the
store-door delivery system proposed by
the Pennsylvania Railroad, and q
study of all retail outlets and whole
sale shipping points from which retail
load centers of trucking demand can
be shown
Other studies suggested are: Moving
temporary buildings to points of con-
centration for better city use as hos
pitfalls and relief quarters; canvass Of
city homes for numbering those un-
marked; canvass for city bureaus to
check up on private occupancy of side
walk areas and investigation of over
hanging structures to determine city
compensation thereon.
So far, it is estimated, there have
been less than 1000 workers of the
white collar" class assigned en-
ployment under the civil works pro-
gram here, while approximately 5000
other workers have been given jobs.