Evening star., 1934-04-14
F AND c STREETS
CLEARED Of CARS
Police Experience No Trou-
BILE as New Ban Is
Enforced.

Downtown F, G and Seventh streets
looked strange and bare this morning
And if the police can do it, those
streets will look that way for 80
days, while municipal authorities test
out the sentiment of the community
concerning an all-day parking ban on
Washington's busiest shopping streets.
New signs, scarlet on a white back
ground, warn mo Parking-8 am.
to pm" Motor cycle policemen
cruise around and warn away those
unfamiliar with the new regulation.
Only One Ticket Seen.
A reporter. wandering along the
three streets in quest of some sort of
action, failed to find any. Perhaps
motorists are by this time resigned to
finding new prohibited areas. On
several blocks there were two or three
cars parked, evidently after the po-
liceman had left and before he had
returned. There was only one ticket
in evidence, however. That was on
a car with Virginia tags, parked on
z street.
On one side of the ticket the driver
was somewhat ironically bid welcome
to the Nations Capital. He was told,
however, that he had violated a traffic
ordinance, referred to on the other
side
Most of the blocks were absolutely
bare, except for commercial vehicles.
These are allowed to park long
enough to take on or unload mer-
chandise.
Officer Had No Trouble.
The motorcycle policeman travelling
up and down G street, from Fifth to
Ninth, said he had no trouble, and
his stretch of sidewalk bore him out.
The parking ban is an experiment
tried at the suggestion of Traffic Di-
rector William A. Van Duzer on rec
ommendation of committee trying
to clear up congestion in the down.
town streets so as to make speedier
street car service possible.
After 30 days a public hearing on
the subject will be held 1t is op-
posed by the merchants in the down.
town area, speaking through their
trade organizations, as a move which
will decentraliZe the commercial Sec
tion and adversely affect their busi-
ness.
Merchant Cites Survey.
In assailing the parking ban today,
Frank R. Jelleff, proprietor of a store
on F street. cited the McClintock re-
port in 1880 to the Automobile Park
ing Committee under Lieut.. Col U.
s. Grant, which found department
stores derived 24.87 per cent of their
sales from purchasers who parked
their automobiles on downtown
streets, and that speciality stores de-
rived 1881 per cent from the same
source
Conditions in this regard are the
same now as they were in Washing
ton in 1890" Mr.. Jelleff said, lex
cept that there are now more people
coming downtown in automobiles than
there were then, and in view of the
fact that only a small percentage Of
the people are overtime parkers,
think it is a calamity to prohibit
parking IN the downtown area.
Serious for Merchants.
eff you drive 25 per cent of the
sales of department stores and % per
cent of the sales of specially stores
to the outlying districts, it will. in
deed, be a serious thing for the mer-
chants of Washington"
Mr.. Jelleff said that except in rush
hours. F. street is not congested and
there is plenty of space for shoppers.
He added that he believed the park
ing restriction should apply only in
rush hours.
Van Duzer holds that from one
third to one-half of the available
space on these streets is taken up
with shipping entrances where park
ing is forbidden. so that the effects
will be not as great as the merchants
fear