Evening star., 1937-01-05
BY BLAIR MOODY.
Il Dispatch to The Star.

nc control, is saving many lives in
few enlightened American cities.
But elsewhere, men, women and
children are walking or riding to their
deaths, dozens of them daily, because
public indifference, ofacial lethargy,
politics red tape-or perhaps just
stubbol n refusal to install new
tangled" but immeasurably more ef-
fective way OF doing things-has let
Q bad problem drift to worse.
The first rule Of common sense in
handling a city's accident problem.
trafic engineers say, k-get the facts!
Another, as expressed by Sidney j.
Williams, traffic director Of the Ma
tional Safety Council, is that an ac-
cident is a symptom that something
was wrong. 1t may be, and frequent
ly is. the driver. Often 1t Is the
pedestrian.
But except in gross cases Of care
lessness or drunkenness. there are
usually other factors. Drivers are not
purpoteful killers, either Of them
selves or others. Pedestrians certainly
are net trying to be hit. In most ac-
cidents, investigation reveals a COM
binati9n Of causes, perhaps including
human negligence-but often con-
tributing physical factors. which, If
corrected, would prevent recurrence.
Job to Eliminate Hazards.
It IS the traffic engineers job to
find o. ut what those contributing haz-
ards re and to eliminate them.
No general rules can be laid down.
Each city, each intersection where q
collision occurs, is an individual prob
lem. The traffic engineers job Is to
find the fundamentals Of that prob
lem yet the facts-and then use his
comm on sense.
In New York City recently q star
tling series of accidents occurred at
Forty+second street and Sixth avenue
Just one block from the Crossroads
Of the World" Crash after crash
took place, far out of proportion even
to tn e congested. condition of the
thoro,lghfare. Motorists seemed to be
driving 8 Unfortunately into pedes-
trians instead Of stopping on the red
Light.
A simple investigation revealed what
was wrong. The light was so placed
tina: o motorist driving behind a truck
or bu could not see it and would
drive across the intersection before
reali1 ing he should have stopped. The
position of the light was changed
and accidents stopped.
Yva Hryav -
den phzzling epidemic Of collisions at
Q certain intersection between and
5 in the afternoon. The traffic en-
gineet just went out and watched.
He found that when the sun sank
near the horizon it shone through
the signal light so that driver ap-
preaching from the east could not
tell whether red or green was show
ing. He would drive through the
red and-crash!
In the same city, study Of a high
accident record at another corner re-
vealed that an untrimmed hedge cut
of the view Of approaching motor
lists. The hedge was trimmed and
accide ents halted.
EV ACcl0entS u kntefBcCtt0ns
At the intersection of two main
highways. 66 and n, near Oklahoma
City, more than 20 serious accidents
occur red within three months. It
was ! Investigated. OF IS drivers stop
ped tor questioning, IS did not see
the slow" signs on each approach.
while the 10 drivers who did see the
signs did not know to what extent
they should reduce their rate.
La,t tge signs, Dangerous intersec-
ton slow to Is miles," have been
erected far enough from the crossing
to give drivers time to reduce their
speed There have been, at last re-
port, no more accidents.
The State of Illinois built q road
across the south end Of Sangamon
County, creating five railroad grade
cross lngs within $50 feet The first
accident occurred three weeks later.
Six others followed-all at night and
all from the same causes. Either
car ran into parked train or
swerved into q ditch to avoid one.
The railroad fioodlighted all parked
trains and-no more accidents.
No all this seems to the average
sensible person . matter of A B C's.
Yet In many cities death-traps SINH
lar 10 those described continue to
exist because no one bothers to get
the facts.
Street Crowding Not Anticipated.
Traflc engineering, fundamentally,
b needed because more vehicles are
crowding streets and highways than
those who designed them anticipated.
As +. L. Toms, division chief Of the
BureA Au Of Public Roads, points out,
many highways over which cars now
operate At high speeds were designed
and built IS or 20 years ago; city
street Is often so to 100 years ago.
Dr. Miller McClintock, director Of
the Harvard Bureau for Street Traf-
nc Research, has worked out system
Of limited ways" which have sep
arated grades and raised strips Of con-
crete or grass spaces between north
and south flowing trafhc and other
forms Of automatic protection.
High-speed drives on Chicago's
hke front illustrate the nmited-way
principle; 20 do the river front drives
now completed or under construc-
ton In New York and the tunnel un-
der the Hudson River. One strip Of
ChicAgo's outer drive has carried more
thar 10000, 900 miles Of high-spesd
tranle for each year since it has
opened-60, 100000 miles in all-with
one fatal accident in 1888, one In
1884 and none In 1885.
But the cost of building limited
ways' on . national scale would be
prokiibitive. Toms estimates that
Improvement Of only S per cent Of the
State highway mileage along Limited
wayt lines would cost $4,000, ,000, 900.
Sd the task of . trafic engineer Is
one Of sizing up the general situa-
ton -and . thousand specific situa-
S,.kA A1A