HANDLING TRAFFIC

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 100, 30 April 1927, Page 13

HANDLING TRAFFIC

SPEED A FALLACY

OLD PROVERB HOLDS GOOD

Colonel Sidney D. Waldon, a director of tho Detroit Automobile Olub and a member of the Rapid Transit Commission of th*t city, takes exception to the viow frequently expressed that high rates of speed lessen congestion by keeping traffic moving at a more rapid pace. He considers that 15 to 22 miles an hour is tho most- satisfactory and fastost Rpced in a lino of traffic. "The speed at which tho greatest number of vehicles can pass a given point," says Colonel Waldon, "is approximately 15 miles an hour. Eightynine out of a hundred would aay that the higher tho speed thq greater the capacity, ■wlioreas tho opposite ia true above this-particular speed. "At sixty miles per hour, only 60 per cent, as many vehicles will be ablo to pass the same point as could pass were all travelling at fifteen miles per hour. Tho reason is that at each increase in vehicle speod there must bo an increase in the safe distance between vehicle?, "With each increase in speed there is consequently a lesser humbor of vohiclcS occupying one mile of the singlo traffic lane. With the line moving at sixty miles per hour it is easy to see that if more vehicles are introduced, thereby lessening the . interval between cars, the speed of ail cars must slow down to what is safe for' tho new distance that separates each one from the other. "A stream pf motor-cars is unlike a stream of liquid, the greatest speeds of which are ■ through bottle-nocks and with the lowest speed in the wide place that lies between. The automobile speeds up in the wide places and I 'becomes jammed in the bottlenecks and,sharp turns. Trying to force a largo number of automobiles through a zig-zag intersection may be likened to cramming a lot of bricks through,a pipo with a' sharp bend in it." ) According to the roster compiled for thecurrent year, more than 4800 of the 8000 members in the Society of Automotive Er.ginoors reside in ton States of Americn, The States, having the largest number of members are: Michigan, 1107; New York, 1056; Ohio, 624; Pennsylvania, 420; Illinois, 301; Califoynia, 267; Indiana, 259; New Jorsey, 242; and Massachusetts, 207. Other countries represented aro England, 91; Canada, 66; France, 34; Germany, 24; and Japan, 33. There are also mem,, bers in Africa, China, India, Moxieo, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, and Dantzig. In dealing with over thirty motorists who wero prosecuted at Auckland re. cently by tho Avondalo Borough Council, Mr. E. C. Cutten, S.M., tool; tho view that higher speeds were the order of tho day, and wero not necessarily hazardous in a' moving lino of traffic where thore was no cutting in. In im.posing lines, considerably below the usual ..standard): he said: "I do not liko the idoa of catching a wholo lot of 'people just for speeding and making revenue out of- th'einA discussion which ended nowhere took place at a meeting of tho South Canterbury Automobilo Association in regard to tho behaviour o£ both motorists and drovers in regard to meeting stock when travelling on the roads. It was made abundantly clear that faults exist on both sides, mainly front lack of experienco both on tho part of motor drivers and of drovers.