UNIFORMITY WANTED

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 41, 16 August 1930, Page 27

UNIFORMITY WANTED

AMERICA'S MANY STATES CONFLICT OF PRACTICE (From "Tho Posfs" Representative.) NEW YOEK, sth July. ...The third national conference on street and highway safety, just concluded here, laid stress on the growing need for uniformity of State vehicle laws and municipal traffic ordinances, driving practice, rules of the road, and standardisation of ' road signs, signals, and street markings. Four years ago._.the Californian Legislature brought the whole State under uniform traffic laws, The movement is spreading to neighbouring 'State, the motorists of which find less difficulty from motoring rules in California than in their own State. Motor buses which cross the Continent, are subject to a variety of laws and ordinances, which are rigidly enforced in case of tho heavier type of motor vehicle. These laws are not infrequently in conflict with each other. Tho highways havo beconio important adjuncts in the distribution of rnorchandiso over considerable areas of territory. Their operators are handicapped by the diversity of procedure. Southern tourists, go north in summer, northerners go south in winter. The resident of the average city becomes familiar with the licence plates of every* State of the Union. ■ While emphasising that control of vehicular traffic must remain with tho States and municipalities, the conference declared unequivocally that tho elimination of the existing diversity in the administration, regulation and statutory control of streets and highways, and the promotion of standard driving -practices is a vital factor 'in the campaign to reduce automobile fatalities, in which 33,000 persons lost their lives last" year. A uniform code for the whole of the United States has now been prepared, based very much on the California pattern, and the agencies working in conjunction with the conference are urging its adoption on all Statu:< and cities. i The success of the Californiaa Jaw will, it is anticipated, lead to uniform practice being adopted. It will require some yielding of State and local prejudices. It will make travelling far easier for the motorist who; in return for this concession, is expected to develop more sfelf-restraint and a greater sense of responsibility.