Evening star., 1935-12-21
TRANSIT HEARING
SERIES ADJOURNED
UNTIL JANUARY Z
Commission viii Issue Order
Fixing Maximum Load for
Each Type of Bus.
D. C.-OWNED PARKING
SITES URGED BY ROBERTS
self-Liquidating Garages Advo.
Gated to Clear Streets and
Speed Traffic.

speed 1ramc.
After making preparations to order
some immediate improvements in the
Districts public mass transportation
service. the Public Utilities Commits
sion today adjourned its series of
hearings on complaints against the
Capital Transit Co. until January 2.
The first move will be to remedy
complaints about overloaded busses.
Orders will be issued fixing the maxi
mum standing load for each type of
bus.
Other steps contemplated in advance
of the close of the public hearing have
not been revealed. 1t is understood,
however, some changes in bus routes
may be ordered to correct defects in
the present routing system. which
were developed during the first five
days of the hearing.
Holidays Bring Recess.
Postponement of the hearing until
the new year was agreed on because
of the approach Of the holiday season,
coupled with developments which IN
dicated four or five days more would
be required to take the testimony OF
remaining witnesses. John H. Hanna,
president of the transit company, said
it would probably take him two days
to answer the mass Of complaints and
reveal his own plans for improving
both the rail and the bus service.
The first indication that the COM
mission proposed to take steps to i'm
prove the transportation service before
conclusion of the hearings came late
yesterday, when orders were given
Fred A. Sager, chief engineer of the
commission, to prepare at once tech
nical studies for each class and size
of bus on which the maximum stand
ing load could be determined.
Hanna said he did not want to
operate over-crowded busses and
promised to work with Sager in the
preparation of the proposed rules.
William A. Roberts, peoples counsel,
who has directed the parade OF civic
representatives during the hearings,
urged the commission late yesterday
to bring about municipally-co construct
ed parking garages in the downtown
section. Such step, he declared, is
necessary toward improvement OF
mass transportation.
Roberts pointed out that District
automobile drivers spend $829,000 a
year for the privilege of parking on
privately-owned downtown lots. The
District, he said, gains virtually no
taxes from these lots and is losing use
Of street space by curb parking.
Projects Self-Liquidating.
"The streets must be freed sooner
or later from parked cars" he de-
clared. Establishment of municipal
parking ramps would do this, allowing
a freer movement of busses, street cars
and other vehicles"
The proposed garages, under Rob-
erts' plan, would be f-liquidating.
Richard Ledger of the Rhode Island
Avenue Citizens Association intro
duced a huge file of complaints which
he had collected, covering many de-
tailed phases of transportation service.
James D. Secrest. Washington Post
reporter. resident of American Uni
versity Park, offered numerous COM
plants against the Massachusetts,
avenue bus line operation. He pro-
tested that, while some 600 new resi-
dents have gone into the section in
the past year, the half-hourly service
in non-rush periods still has been
maintained.
The contribution of the germ-laden
straphandle to the health menace of
street cars and busses was discussed
by William McKendree Clayton, vet
eran chairman of the Public Utilities
Committee of the Federation of Citi-
Eens' Associations, at the hearing.
damned Windows Cited.
Questioned about the standard of
cleanliness in cars and busses by Rob-
erts, Clayton said sanitary conditions
are not what they should be, that
Aoors and windows are dirty, that
windows on some of the cars are
wedged and will not open. that sun
shades are missing on some of the
Capital Transit Co.'S equipment and
that some fastidiouS men wash their
hands after holding a strap.
Clayton also declared that in his
many years of bus and street car
riding he had never seen discour-
teous employe. although he had wit
messed conductors and motormen suf-
fer embarrassment from quarrelsome
passengers.
Roberts read into the record letter
from s. D. Ashford, chairman of the
Traffic Subcommittee of the Washing
ton Board of Trade, listing a number
OF complaints against the Transit Co.
He said bus drivers failed to observe
traffic signs and some of those on the
Connecticut avenue line exceeded 80
miles per hour on Taft Bridge, where
the speed limit is % miles. He also
condemned the wooden, poorly lighted
car loading platforms and safety zones
and urged erection of permanent load
ing platforms suitably lighted and
marked.
Brig. Gen. o. B. Rosenbaum of Pei
ham Courts presented two petitions
containing the signatures of 1873 resi-
dents in the vicinity of Twenty-first
and P streets, urging adequate bus
service on P street and improved
transfer facilities at Dupont Circle.
A resolution asking for extension of
the Eleventh street car line to Georgia
avenue, adopted by the Petworth Citi-
Eens' Association, was read to the COM
mission by w. Y. Boyd, member of
that organization.