BIG CITY TRAFFIC

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 10, 12 January 1929, Page 25

BIG CITY TRAFFIC

EVER CROWING PROBLEM

I CONDITIONS IN NEW YORK ■'. In all the "mass of words that'are' published about traffic in places like London and New York there :does appear from time to.time a ( cicsf statement of- the actual jposition-T-'and': .it is,'.not by, any means in line-vjyitti the motoring paradise some people; who" return" from abroad would have us); believe; Only'the other day .it was; i-p- ---:. ported-that traffic in London had 1 now been so speeded up that the buses were ;'getting along, at thirty miles an hour. '.The truth is that the position in Lonydoit is'now So difficult that it is being ■seriously suggested that private cars he debarred from entering the congested areas and '. leading. thoroughfares—" ,:in fact, 1 debarred from the city altogether—in business hours.. And it is '.'now becoming recognised that traffic ■ i?i-London is'ydtier managed than .traffic anywhere else in.the world.' " Bo far'as New York is concerned the following, from a recent number of the "Scientific American," should interest motorists who want to know truth and not fable: — "Traffic on the busy..thoroughfares, of some cities has reached a point where the motor-car is the slowest' moving object.in the city. On a typical busy afternoon.on Fifth Avenue, New York, during.^ the time when traffic is approaching its. peak, the buses wend their way northwar'rt'.at a,'•';speed averagirig noimpjo thahono mile an hbuivßetween Thirty-eighth'and, Forty;eighth .Streets, where?'congestion' is the greatest, the half-mile journey frequently consumes' half an hour, which is, perhaps, as near to a complete stoppage of traffic as may he attained. . . '(.'Congestion in New York isl indicative, to a greater or less extent, of that. - which prevails in all cities,; large or small.:> Parked cars lining both; sides, ' of :the important arteries of -travel .-shut' bfi'one or two potential laches of.traf-. -lie; loft turns out of traffic [the American rule of the road is the opposite of ours; their left turn is equalivalent to our right turn] retard the free move-

ment, of traffic in both directions; signals with no/degree of uniformity confuse, the driver who is out of his own territory. , '"In"this picture of congestion and delays, the traffic officer stands out as a 1 factor of iriestimablo value. Whether his manner bo. courteous or gruff, cheerful or uncompromising, it is he who keeps traffic moving, and when ho is off -his,, post ..the best signal system in the world, will work-: at. a disadvantage. And,'in fact, the. signals serve only., to supplement his work, fortheir lack of uniformity.,, if nothing else, militates against,.,their greatest. effectiveness; '■ ,'■';'Traffic,has become a major probvlcni ,iri>jthe; Uaiited; States. ; Motor ■ manu- > ■facturgrs. might,well co-operato with civici'.-.authorities', for unless a'solution 1 is.;fbu]ld, the motor-car,:in groat cities, will' be of '" constantly , . depreciating value." •- .. ■■'.