Evening star., 1946-10-15
Roundup ofCars
With State Tags
"Opens Tonight
Police to Force Use
Of District Licenses
ByOut-of- f-Town Drivers


ByOut-of- own Drivers
A breakdown on about $4,000
District residents using out-of-
town automobile licenses will
begin tonight. ,
Speaking before the Mount Pleas
ant Citizens Association last night,
Traffic Director George e. Keneipp
revealed that police will tag all
cars with out-of-town licenses
which are parked in District, be-
ginning at II O'Clock tonight.
The tags will instruct the owner
Of the automobile to report to the
nearest police inspection station. At
the station a reciprocity tag" will
be issued to the car in accordance
with the States reciprocity agree
ment.
Mr.. Keneipp explained the Dis
trict will honor whatever regula-
ton applied to cars in the State
ir which they are licensed. For
example, he said, Alabama would
require a District resident who
moved to Alabama to obtain a
drivers permit and an automo-
bile license Immediately on moving
to the State. Consequently an
Alabama resident moving to the
District will be required to get a
District drivers permit and Dis
trict tags Immediately.
Mr.. Keneipp said there are more
than $4,000 automobiles In the Dis
tr1ct which are using tags from an
other State Illegally.
II propose to put a stop to this
chiseling," Mr.. Keneipp said. Fig
ures show that the District loses
approximately $500,000 a year from
this illegal registration Of automo-
biles."
At the time the policeman tags
the car he will note the license
number and the date OF the issu-
ance Of the notice, Mr.. Keneipp
said. II after a reasonable time
the car has not reported to the
inspection station the policeman
will then issue a traffic violation
ticket the next time he sees the
car parked in the District.
The tags" which will be issued to
every car bearing out-of-town
licenses, will show that the car is
privileged to operate on its present
license for the length of time allowed
under the reciprocity agreement with
the States involved. After the time
allowed has run out, traffic viola
ton tickets will be issued every time
the car is found parked on the
streets, Mr.. Keneipp said.
The average time allowed by other
States runs from 80 to 80 days for
persons moving into their jurisdic-
tions to get tags and drivers permits,
Mr.. Keneipp said. Thus, most Dis
trict residents driving on out-of-
town tags will have from 80 to 80
days of grace before they have to
replace their State tags with District
tags.
Night Tagging Only.
~ MIR. Keneipp said the police de
partment would tag cars only at
night to avoid bothering Maryland
and Virginia residents who work in
the District during the day.
I'VE don't expect to have 100 per
cent success in rounding up these
District residents who are driving
on tags from another State" Mr..
Keneipp declared. But we will get
most Of them"
Recent figures released by the
Public Roads Administration show
that only 10000 automobiles are
registered in the District, Mr..
Keneipp pointed out.
During the past year we have
suffered the greatest decline in auto
mobile registration of any State"
he said.
This occurred despite the known
fact that Washington traffic has
jumped tremendously in the past
year, Mr.. Keneipp said. In previous
years the registration of cars in the
District has passed 100000.
Sees Model Traffic Code.
Speaking on other traffic matters,
Mr.. Keneipp said the Commissioners
Traffic Advisory Committee was now
in the process of going over the
present District traffic regulations
with a fine tooth comb" The re-
suit of this study, expected to be
completed within a few months, will
be a simplified code of traffic regu-
lations which each citizen can un-
derstand.
I'VE will end up with a model
traffic code," Mr.. Keneipp stated.
He said he would go to San Fran
cisco within a month to present this
model code to a national meeting of
traffic experts. Biggest aim of the
national traffic experts is to get a
standard set of regulations adopted,
he said.
Marcus Borehardt, president Of
the Mount Pleasant Association,
presided at the meeting which was
held at the Mount Pleasant Library,
Sixteenth and Lamont streets NV.