Evening star., 1936-03-13
DRIVERS SCHOOL,
MORE POLICEMEN.
URGED BY ROBERTS.
Ban on All Curb Parking
Downtown Advised by
Peoples Counsel.
GOVERNMENT GARAGE
PROJECT RECOMMENDED
Mall Triangle and stupidity"
Of Closing Thirteenth Street
Blamed for Congestion.

Establishment Of q drivers school,
to be conducted by the Department
Of Vehicles and Traffic In co-opera.
ton with>the Police Court judges, was
advocated today by Peoples Counsel
William A. Roberts.
Testifying before the Carpenter
| subcommittee of the House District
Committee, Roberts also urged more
personnel In the Police Department, to
detect violators Of the trafic law and
more effectively prosecute them" This,
he declared, is the most vital need
for traffic safety"
In proposing the drivers school,
Roberts, the first witness when the
subcommittee's trafic hearings we're
resumed today, asserted the large
number of newcomers settling here
every year makes such instruction
| necessary.
Under the suggested set-up, he said,
the judges might give careless motor
lists suspended sentences on condition
they attend the school. Certificates
from the school would have to be
presented in Police Court before final
disposition of such cases.
Roberts insisted there must be alb
solute prohibition of double parking,
or loading and unloading by CONNER
cial vehicles, in the downtown area
during rush hours.
Congestion Is not confined to rush
hours. however, he asserted.
Building up of the Mall triangle,
he continued. and the stupidity"
Of structural engineers in closing
Thirteenth street south of pennsyl-
| vania avenue is responsible for the
greatest congestion.
Ban on Curb Parking.
Emphasizing the need for more
downtown parking space, he advocat-
| ed elimination of all curb parking.
Mere widening Of streets Is only tenn
porary expedient. he said, and better
solution would be to maintain full use
Of the thoroughfares.
Parking lots in the downtown Sec
tion repeatedly have been shown to be
menaces to safety, he declared.
More than million dollars In
buildings on which the District had
been collecting $4,000 in taxes were
torn down for parking lots last year,
he went on.
He urged that a bill be introduced
by Chairmen King and Norton, Sem
ate and House District Committees. |
respectively, for a Government ga
rage corporation. owned jointly by |
the District and Federal governments |
This corporation, he said, should
eventually have working capital of
some $l0,000,000. !
He quoted statistics compiled by |
Former Assessor Richards. covering |
parking places which now accom- |
modate some 5000 cars. The Gov
ernment is already involved, he ex-
planned, because it, has a million dol |
lars In curb-parking space and some |
half-dozen large lots, totaling $4,000 |
square feet, with an assessment value |
of s3,919, 900, given over to private |
parking
His figures showed Government |
parking garages could be built, main |
tanned and amortized at a charge of |
IS a month to patrons, and the fees
would be less than those on Govern |
ment-owned land now used by private |
operators.
Suggests Street Car Subway.
He suggested a 4-mile street car |
subway from south of Pennsylvania |
avenue-with entrance north of
Thomas Circle on Fourteenth street,
north of Dupont Circle on Connecti-
cut avenue and west Of the Supreme |
Court Building-to a point near
Twenty-frst street. He estimated
this could be done at an initial cost |
of $4,000. 900.
At the request of Chairman Car
penter, Roberts agreed to prepare a
memorandum covering the history Of
transportation in the District.
George w. Offutt, chairman Of the
Alcoholic Beverage Control Board and
the traffic advisory counsel, told the
subcommittee the police force is un-
dermanned, not only for trafiic duty |
but for all phases of its work.
Discussing "ticket-fixing," Offutt |
argued there must be some responsible |
authority to handle such cases out |
of court, where there are extenuating |
circumstances. It would be q real
hardship and injustice in some cases
to bring a citizen into court for trial, |
he said, adding he could not cite q
single case of Fixing"
Offutt said drunken driving is one |
of the worst problems to handle. He
pointed out a big percentage Of those |
apprehended on drunken driving |
charges are put on probation, but the |
gravity of the charge does not seem |
to be understood. He suggested q
little better understanding between |
the Police Department, the Corpora |
ton CounseI's office and the court"
Nolen Is Questioned.
John Nolen, representing the Ma
tional Capital Park and Planning |
Commission, was asked by Carpenter
if a study is being made to get other
new Government buildings away from
the congested triangle He said the
sites of the new Interior and War
Department Buildings were selected
after careful study.
Carpenter argued that the War and
Navy Departments should be In the
neighborhood of the War College and
the Navy Yard. The Planning COM
mission originally intended to place
the War and Navy Departments in
the Southwest triangle south Of Inde-
pendence avenue, but the War Depart
ment did not like the location. The