Evening star., 1953-01-08
D. {. Officials Agree
Parking Ban Is Good
For Philadelphia
BY George Beveridee
Sior Stoff Correspondent

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. g.
Washington traffic. business and
transportation leaders were in
agreement today that Philadel-
phia'S new ban on downtown
curb parking is a fine thing-for
Philadelphia.
But the majority opinion. so
far as applying the Quaker City's
widely heralded cutback to
Washington streets is concerned,
Is one of extreme skepticism.
The reason is simple: Phila-
delphia's traffic ills-their causes
as we'll as corrective possibilities
are as unlike Washington's as
night and day.
The 12-member District party,
led by Traffic Director George E.
2 Keneipp. found this out during
a walk filled and talk-f1lled eight
hours here yesterday.
The program they inspected
was imposed on December /. It
forbade curb parking on all main
streets of a 120-square block
area on weekdays between 8 am.
and $50 pm. On temporary
basis now. the restrictions per-
manency will be decided by the
City Council before February %.
Depends on Enforcement.
AS it turned out. the program
actually is more one of police
enforcement than a wholesale
removal of parking spaces.
Deputy Streets Commissioner
Leslie Williams disclosed that
80 per cent of the approximately
1900 curb spaces in the area
have been banned for years.
The enforcement, he said, simply
hasn't been pushed. He esti-
mated the net effect of the new
order is to declare illegal only
about 400 additional spaces.
But the stepped-up enforcement
applies to all.
Deputy Police Commissioner
Herbert j. Kitchenman con-
ceded the enforcement wasn't
carried out before because we
haven't had the CUTS to do it."
He advised the Washington Of
ficialS.. if they consider adopting
such a plan. to get a strong
man to head up enforcement and
let him alone"
To be successful, he said, such
ban has to apply to all park
ers, including diplomatic Of
ficials. And so-called courtesy
cards." he added. should be
printed on very, very thin
paper"
Mr.. Kitchenman strongly
praised the new program, and
the District visitors heard SINH
lar expressions from other city
officials, transit officials who
first proposed it, cab drivers and
business leaders.
Small Merchants Object.
While some small merchants
have objected that the program
is robbing them Of customers. a
Chamber of Commerce official
said the city will not know until
later this month the actual busi-
ness loss, if any, or the mass
reaction of the merchants. Harry
Sley, one of the citys big park
ing lot operators, however, said
his business has been off 80 per
cent since the program took
hold. He blamed public mis-
understanding of the ban for the
fall-off and predicted business
will be back to normal within
six months.
The Washington group never
did find out exactly what has
happened to the former down.
town parkers.
But since the ban, officials
SAID, critical trafnC SnarlS nave
been wiped out, more cars are
moving-and moving faster-on
streets, transit business has
picked up slightly, and there are
fewer accidents.
In expressing their skepticism,
Washington officials cited these
differences from the picture in
the District:
/. The traffic snarls were worse
in Philadelphia. Except for Mar
ket and Broad streets. most OF
the affected routes have only 26-
foot widths. with streetcar tracks
in the center. Washington streets
are wider. And District officials
already have adopted a policy of
wiping out parking if it blocks
the streets main purpose-the
flow of traffic.
2. Nearly all the Philadelphia
streets are one-way. Washington