Evening star., 1936-05-17
Transit
Continued From First Page.)

tSOIlLulucO FTOIu T HSt Z dec.J
by Twentieth street, Constitution ave-
nue., North Capitol street and P street.
Federal Triangle in Area.
In this area are located the Fed
eral Triangle, the business district
north of it, the activities on Capitol
Hill and the governmental agencies
around Twentieth street and Consti-
tuition avenue.
Spreading fan-wise out Of this rela-
lively small section are the city's
principal transportation routes-Wis-
consin. Massachusetts and Connecti-
cut avenues: Sixteenth, Fourteenth
and Thirteenth streets; Georgia ave-
nue., Rhode Island avenue and
Bladensburg road.
Each day the street cars bring
142 500 passengers into this area and
then take them out. Some $4,000
travel in and out on Capital Transit
buses, 5000 on Washington Rapid
Transit buses and 5000 more ride
each way on the suburban bus lines
In 1885 the Capital Transit Co. alone
transported more than Isl 100000
passengers-a total substantially larger
than the entire population Of the
United States.
To accommodate this host of patrons
the company owned 375 busses. with a
seating capacity of 1890 and 683
street cars seating 30,122 persons. The
capacity of the equipment of the
other lines was proportionately about
the same.
Equipment Held Adequate.
This equipment, in the opinion Of
some experts, is adequate to accom-
modate the passengers comfortably,
il the transportation systems were
properly operated Others believe that
in addition to better management,
some additional means of getting into
and out of the congested area must be
found.
All are agreed. however, that the
conditions prevailing at this time are
ever the cause.
During rush hours it Is a rare thing
to see bus or street car that Is not
crowded with standing passengers
Their nerves are frayed by jolting rides
on wornout street cars and jerky
busseS. Motormen and conductors,
transformed overnight into bus drivers,
have not proved to be the best in the
world, with the result that the wear
and tear on both the passengers and
the equipment has been heavy. Ex-
aust fumes on the busses, subject Of a
recent order by the Public Utilities
Commission, also have contributed to
the discomfort of passengers.
Many patrons have complained o1
irregularity of service and this failure
to maintain proper headway probably
represents the greatest single weak
ness in the present operation of the
transportation system.
Improper Spacing Is Cited.
The result has been an improper
spacing of both busSes and street cars
Patrons are left standing at street cor.
ners and the cars, when of schedule
have tendency to group together
Thus, when bus gets to a given cor
ner behind time, the patrons. already
late, climb aboard. regardless of the
fact that one or more other busses may
be following close behind. This otter
results in serious overcrowding of the
vehicles running behind time, while
those following in their wake are moi
carrying as many passengers as they
could comfortably accommodate.
Although the failure to maintain
uniform headways is due to some ex-
tent to traffic conditions over which
the transit company has no control, it
is primarily attributable to fault!
management.
In this connection. F. A. Sager, CHIEF