The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-01-19
Cities 'tGrouOing Llp ntNeuU Problems
Traffic Survey Indicates State's Largesl Communities Boost Fatal Accident Rates Congestion Serious Handicap

A recent survey of the trafac fatality experience of Connectieut's largest cities hy R. E. simpson, re search consultant, for the Highway Safety Commission, reveals the startling fact, according to a Con- mission bulletin, that 76.4 per cent of the 1874 deaths were caused on trafficways representing only i3.9 per cent of total citg street mileage in the ten communities. The ten cities are charged with SIT per cent of Connectlcuts io45 trafhc fatality total of PAS.
 Equally important, according to the bulletin, for consideration by municipal authorities in pondering trafic congesion is the fact that 5l per cent of the trafhc flow in these cities moves over this same small proportion of the municipal arteries. This heavy and consistent concen- tration of trafilc on comparatively few streets, is what causes conges- ton and aggravates the parking problem, in the opinion of MT. Simpson.
 High Accident Experience
 Moreover, unless municipalities invoke reasonable rates of move ment for municipal trafhc using such congested areas, with similar heavy pedestrian traf1c, continued high accident experience will be re- corded with shocking cost in lives and personal injuries.
 The ten cities named in the Simp- son survey are Hartford, New Ha- ven, Bridgeport, Waterbury, New Britain, Stamford, Norwalk, Meri- den, Bristol and New London. Act ual traff1c counts were made by MT. Simpson of municipal streets 80 as to determine route selectivity by city trafi1c.
 The survey suggests that, along with amelioration of the parking problem, municipal traffic author ities should seek wider distribution of traf1c flow to secure greater use of available streets and thin the heavy flow on a few streets where Stagnation too frequently develops through sheer inability of the down. town arteries to handle the over capacity volume with facilitated movement.
 This concentration is a major fac- ', tor in the high fatality rate and thinning out this congestion should prove beneficial. Every car removed from congested areas reduces chances of conflict to a greater ex- tent than it adds to such when travelling less congested alternate routes.
 Today only few months after gasoline restrictions were removed and traffic still below volume to be expected, traffic delays are daily oc- currenceS. It is not uncommon to see lines of cars several blocks long in congested areas awaiting signal which will let them proceed.
 Just Grew Up!
 All this stems from the fact that our cities were not planned but just grew In the course of this growth seldom was there anyone with (a) vision to foresee future needs and Cb) power to see that plans were made and carried out to meet such needs.
 A typical example is the City oi Hartford where the population amount of business conducted ana the volume of traf1c increased tre- mendously in the last quarter of . century. In that time the business area has not had a corresponding expansion with the result that to. day there is congestion.
 The only changes, according tc the bulletin, during this period have been expedients such as prohibition of parking in certain areas, Emita- ton of parking in other areas and establishing one-way traffic on so8ns streets.
 Relieving Areas
 Largely because merchants ob- jected to by-passing business areas not much was done along this line until recent years. None the less this seems to offer an opportunity to relieve the business area of con- gestion and at the same time reduce the chances of trafic conflicts.
 Through traffic is composed large ly of people not too familiar with local conditions. These people will follow general How of trafic, even though this leads to congested areas