Evening star., 1953-06-11
Troffic'Compromise

Recommendations OF the Citizens Advisory
Council should be helpful to the Commissioners
in making up their minds on some of the more
perplexing aspects of the current reorganiza-
tion task There seems to be overwhelming
support now for a consolidation of many
licensing and inspections services in new
department and for a compromise plan assur-
ing retention by the Health Officer of health
engineering and inspection activities. Only in
the traffic field has reorganization met serious
roadblock. Here the council conceded that "a
difficult problem" is presented
Everybody agreeS-the council included
that there are wasteful duplication and over
tapping of traffic engineering work by two
District departments Highways and Traffic.
It has been estimated that 100000 year
could be saved If this waste were eliminated.
The Department of Highways contends the
best way to eliminate the overlapping is by
transferring to it all of the traffic engineering
activities now performed by Vehicles and Traf-
f1c. Traffic Director Keneipp strongly opposes
any such transfer. He says that public safety
requires the handling of signals, signs and
similar traffic engineering" work by traffic
authorities, not highway engineers.
The District reorganizers believe that the
Department of Vehicles and Traffic should be
abolished and that it's functions should be
divided between a new Department of Licensing
and Inspections and the Department of High
ways That drastic proposal has met with a
storm of disapproVal from many quarters The
oft-maligned Traffic Department has found
itself suddenly defended by numerous powerful
groups and individuals, some of whom have
been critical of it in the past AS the oppoSi-
tion grew, the reorganizers evidenced Wiling
ness to consider again a compromise that had
previously been weighed and rejected. This
compromise would preserve the independence Of
the Department of Vehicles and Traffic, leaving
with it licensing and inspection services, but
transferring to Highways the traffic engineering
functions involving signals, etc. The American
Automobile Association has come out in favor
of this modified plan. But the Commissioners
Traffic Advisory Board and the keystone Auto
mobile Club are against any change in the
status quo -<.e--.--~e--.
The Citizens Advisory Council has thrown
its weight on the side of the Traffic Depart
ment, with reservations. One of the reServa-
tions would leave with Traffic the erection,
installation and operation of traff1c-control
devices" but give to the Highway Department
"the maintenance and repair of these devices"
If this means that the technical work incident
to installation of traffic signals is to be done by
one department while repair and maintenance
is to be done by another the splitting of such
closely related functions seems unrealiStic. In
a previous paragraph of it's report. however,
the council recommended that "for the sake of
safety, the administration of lights, marking
and regulation of flow of traffic be handled by
the Department of Vehicles and Traffic" and
that "details of this transition be worked out
through close cooperation between the two
departments" There is strong sentiment for
leaving the Traffic Department in charge of
administration of traff1c-safety measures. But
the compromise plan for consolidating all
traffic engineering work in the Highway De-
partment has a great deal of merit. To per-
petuate the present costly duplication of efforts
would be hard to justify.