Evening star., 1939-02-23

QOLen eTTdIC COrndQOeS.
To get across the street at Elev-
enth street and Pennsylvania ave-
nue. N. w. in one piece, a pedestrian
needs a compass, firm grasp of
higher calculus, reading knowledge
of hieroglyphics, the speed of the
wind and the agility of a politician
at election time.
These, OF course, are minimum
requirements and they represent no
guarantee of safe passage.
The Eleventh and PENNSYLVANIA
avenue corner is like many another
downtown corner in offering almost
unlimited opportunities for the pc
destrian to get himself killed. The
Star Building happens to be located
on this corner and for many months
now the scream of sirens have been
echoing through the building as
ambulances roared up to pick up the
manned and injured
Tuesday. 76-year-old man was
knocked down by a street car on
this corner. The man, Julius c.
Martin. director of the Bureau of
War Risk Litigation in the Depart
ment of Justice, is in serious condi-
ton at Emergency Hospital To
try to determine why Mr.. Martin
should have been injured on this
corner-controlled by traffic lights
The Star has made a study of the
traffic control system here and of
the accidents reported.
Accident Study Made.
The things that were learned
probably explain why there have
been 81 accidents on this corner
since 1933-and since the corner is
like others downtown, it may ex-
plain why the ambulances are on
the go all day.
Moving at normal pace, it takes
the average pedestrian-timed with
a stopwatch-25 seconds to walk
across Pennsylvania avenue from
the Star Building corner to the old
Post Office Building corner.
The lights which hold up traffic
on Pennsylvania avenue stays on for
% seconds. These are lights and 3
on the chart
The pedestrian, therefore, obeying
the law and stepping off the curb
when he gets the proper signal, is
still about three seconds from the
opposite curb when the light
changes.
Moving from The Star corner
across Pennsylvania avenue, the Pc
destrian IS faced with a traffic light
(No. 2 on chart) that has four sig
nals-red, yellow, a green arrow sig
mailing a right turn, and a green
arrow signaling left turn.
Coming up to the corner, the
pedestrian finds this typical situa-
ton: Light No. 2, on the opposite
side of the Avenue, is red and traf-
fic is moving both ways on Pennsyl-
vania avenue.
Change Brings Confusion.
Suddenly traffic on his side of
Pennsylvania avenue is stopped by
a red light, No. 3. But on the
opposite side of the Avenue traffic
continues through and is allowed t.
make left turn onto Eleventh
street. The red light that faces the
pedestrian stays red, and a green
arroW-alloWing cars on Eleventh
street to make a right turn on the
Avenue-shoWs on this, No. 2.
This obviously, is no time to walk
A steady stream of cars is turning
the corner. On the other side of
the Avenue traffic is moving through.
So the pedestrian-if he is thinking
waits on the corner.
The lights change again. Through
traffic on Pennsylvania avenue is
stopped in both directions by led
signals on Nos. and g. The pedes-
trian looks up hopefully at the light,
No. 2, which governs him-hoping
that it will stop the right turns
long enough for him to cross the
street.
But this signal now shows a green
arrow pointing left and the old green
arrow for right turns. The pedes-
trian stands STILL waiting for the
cars to stop making right turns.
Perhaps he waits 10 seconds before
the intersection is clear. Then he
steps out into the street and when
he has been walking for IL seconds
and is about half way ocross the
Avenue-traffic starts moving up and
down the Avenue again. Signals
and have turned green.
Street cars. buses, automobiles
start up. The pedestrian, in the mid