Evening star., 1935-07-28

about this type of advertising is that
if a car is advertised to go at a speed
of from 80 to 100 miles an hour,
some drivers are sure to take the
manufacturer at his word and try to
travel at that speed, and it is a well
known fact that there is not one
driver in q thousand who is capable
of operating a motor vehicle at that
rate of speed even on race track.
let alone on highway which is
being used by all kinds Of traffic.
The automotive engineer has done
an excellent job in improving the de-
sign, mechanism and the safety fea-
lures of the motor vehicle, but the
highway engineer has not kept pace
with the automotive engineer for sew
eral reasons. One of the principal
reasons is that he has not had suffi-
cient funds to build and maintain the
mileage needed to meet the demands
of the motoring public. Another rea-
son is the continuous changes in the
partments due to the political in
fiuence and to the building of politi-
cal roads instead of building of high
ways which traffic surveys show
should be built. These changes in
the management of the highway de-
partments through political influence
has seriously interfered not only with
the location and design of highways,
but also with the preliminary traffic
studies and transport surveys which
are so urgently needed in order to
develop a proper plan upon which to
build.
Factors Must Be Known.
To lay out a system of highways
which will meet adequately the public
needs, the approximate origin and
destination of all vehicles should be
known. These are the factors which
create traffic. Many of the States
have not obtained this information
and have built the roads on a hit
or-miSs" plan SO that numerous high
ways have been built of more or less
durable construction, but with width
entirely inadequate to carry the traf-
flc. Some of these roads were built
as two-lane highways and they are
now carrying more than a safe Ca
pacity, which encourages cutting in
and out of traffic, causing a large
percentage of the automobile acci-
dents in country road driving.
The highway engineer, If given
sufficient opportunity and funds, will
build proper highways which will
carry the traffic in a safe manner.
These highways will carry super
elevated curves, sufficiently reduce
curvature to enable cars to be operated
on these curves at the legal speed
limits allowable in the State. They
will eliminate grade crossings, and,
where the traffic justifes it. they
will eliminate highway grade cross
ings and all left turns by the con-
struction of clover-leaf underpaSses.
They will build sufficient lanes to take
care of the present and future traffic
within the economical life of the
road and, If given sufficient funds,
will provide adequate iight-of-way
to take care of the future development
of these highways.
Another phase of this subject which
calls for attention is night accidents,
caused primarily by lack of proper
illumination on the highways and by
reduction of light at night. At pres
ent, nearly one-half of all accidents
are occurring at night, although less
than one-fifth of the traffic Is on the
road at night.
More Light Needed.
Clifford c. Paterson, in a recent
paper with special relation to safety
on the roads, printed in the Journal
and Record of Transactions, the Junior
Institution of Engineers, England,
brought out the fact that a great
source of danger is that the eye is
asked to function where there is so
little light. He said that the different
illumination levels are shown by the
following figures:
Bright sunshine 5000 foot
candles.
Ordinary daylight-700.
Dusk-3.
Reasonable street Illumination
02.
Moonlight-0.02.
Badly lighted street-001.
Something must be done either to
illuminate country roads at night or
Continued On sixth Pase.)