Evening star., 1935-12-29


Waukee caused so many smash-ups it
was popularity known as the battle
ground It was 'channelized for
trafic and accidents we're abolished.
Chicago's revamping OF the signal
system on Michigan Boulevard caused
q drop of 46 per cent in pedestrian ac-
cidents, AZ per cent in all accidents
and 81 per cent in property damage
while traffic sped up IS per cent.
Iowa's State wide system of highway
markings and safety patrols cut
deaths by SO and injuries by 3,731 the
frst year it was in force. Myriad be-
Sore-and- after studies of street and
highway intersections tell the same
story: Trafic engineering saves lives"
1.-The present trouble Is not that we
don't know what to do about automo-
bile accidents, but that we have not
yet used what we know.
when, for instance, only 10 States
have drivers license laws that are at
all edequate; when at least six States
have no minimum driving age, so that
0 child can legally jump from his
horsepower automobile and drive 1t
through crowded thoroughfare;
when, in a typical city of 100000,
10000 tickets of traffic offenders are
fixed through political influence each
wear, it cannot be said that we have
seriously come to grips with the prob
lem"
The country needs gigantic pro-
gram of highway construction to make
roads and streets safe, declares James
d. Adams, chairman of the State
Highway Commission of Indiana. He
urges a system Of divided-lane high
ways.
ut is fully as important to construct
d highway that gets motorist to his
destination in safety as it is to build
the highway at ALL" he asserted at
recent meeting of the American Asso-
citation of State Highway Of1cials.
1T must be admitted that putting
the maximum of safety into our nigh
ways will increase their cost, and Will
thereby reduce the number OF miles
which may be improved with the pres
ent available revenue. But $4,000 dead
and a million injured annually cannot
lightly be tossed aside.
I'VE need but use the arguments at
hand-the fatalities, the injuries, the
property damage, the greater speed in
moving traffic, the increased pleasure
and safety to the motorist, and the
tremendous amount Of employment
that the construction would offer.
"An industry which furnishes en-
ployment to millions, an industry
which provides the thoroughfares over
which a tremendous amount of COM
Ynerce moves, an industry which has
e6 per cent Of the people of voting age
on wheels certainly should be able to
convince our motoring public that
great system of divided-lane highways
should be started"
November factory sales of automo-
biles manufactured in the United
States (including foreign assemblies
from parts made in the United States
and reported as complete units or vehi-
cles) consisted of 398,024 vehicles, of
which 338,425 we're passenger cars and
1858 were trucks, as compared with
a7S,o21 vehicles in october, S5,482
vehicles in November, 1884, and 60,683
Vehicles in November, 1898. These sta
tistics were released today by Director
William L. Austin, Bureau Of the Gen.
Sus. Department of Commerce.
Some time within the next 8 or 10
weeks the motor car industry's chief
tains will be called upon to decide def
nitely whether to repeat the Fall in
PRODUCTION of new models, according
to an Associated Press dispatch from
Detroit.
On the basis of current reaction to
the November presentation Of new
types, a decision at this time would
be emphatically in favor Of the plan.
indications are that retail distribution
during January and February probably
will be the deciding factor.
To date the plan can be called an
unqualified success, having stimulated
an unprecedented retail demand at
time that normally is extremely lean,
having provided high level of en-
ployment when 1t was most needed,
and in assuring competing companies
that their retail outlets would be ade-
Auately stocked when the second wave
of buying interest rolls in, around
March !.
One of the negative developments
of the Fall introduction policy, of
course, has been the unusually heavy
Winter accumulation of used cars,
estimated by automotive industries,
trade publication, to have reached
44s,ooo units op pmscember /. The
highest level Of \ 81 inventories in
the industry's hfSl was the 600,000
unit accumulation in 1929. There is
under way, however, a concentrated
effort throughout the industry to
stimulate the sale of traded-in We
tieles. The turnover generally is re-
ported to be increasing.
The automobile industry is writing
across the face of its New Year greet
4ngs to the Nation the promise of un-
broken production and the continued
distribution of generous pay rolls to its
thousands of workers in Detroit as well
as elsewhere, according to the North
American Newspaper Alliance.
While, from time to time, there have
been optimistic predictions of 1886 out
put ranging from 4,500, 900 to 5000 900
units, Detroit manufacturers are less
concerned, as the New Year opens,
with the probable number Of cars to
. be turned out as they are with the
simple assurance that the next IL
months Will be, like the last, busy and
on the whole prosperous ones. They
have seen the demand for cars return
With remarkable suddenness after the
mediocre years Of 1882 and 1888.
They have watched the favorable re-
sponse to the Fall introduction of
models. They have been able to dis
tribute one of the biggest December
pay rolls In history.
Alvan Macauley, president of the
Ai1tos,aoloiia Maniifa ct1lrerS' ,ASsocia-