TRAFFIC CONGESTION.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18402, 8 June 1925, Page 14

TRAFFIC CONGESTION.

A GROWING PROBLEM. (By Walter P. Chrysler. President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Maxwell and Chrysler Motor Corporations of America.) The great cities of tbc world are all faced with the problem of traffic congestion. London. Xcw York, and Paris are all faced with the serious problem of dealing with steadily increasing traffic. Yet the congestion is bound to grow. In my opinion the problem of congestion promises to be even more serious in fireat Britain than the Stales—Xew York, of course, by its situation being an exception. If in the States we have twenty times your number of motorcars, we have seventy times your area. Our towns and cities, being mainly new, have broader streets and are better planned, for traffic. We have not your nroblem of old country towns with little winding streets on main traffic routes.

It is simple to say that widening roads and the creation of by-pass roads to avoid congested areas will help greatly;- But in a very heavily-taxed country like yours the great, reconstructions needed are impracticable. . But there are suggestions which are feasible and inexpensive. Your London system of directing traffic is splendid—l yield to no one in my admiration for your traffic police—but I think your police would be greatly assisted if the Ney/'York system of one-way streets and signal towers were introduced. For example, when the signal tower flashes "Stop," all vehicles on the route stop at once where they are instead of all jamming into one great string immediately behind the crossing. This has the great advantage of keeping tlie neighbouring side streets open, and enabling ears to get quickly* into top speed directly the obstruction is removed. T think,' too, that our method of marking certain side streets as detour routes would be an advantage. It is also necessary that in all great traffic' streets cars can be prohibited standing by the footpath except for the moment required to set down or take up passengers. Certain varieties of slow traffic ought to be prohibited the use of main streets during tho crush hours. A coal-cart or a refuse-cart will hold up all traffic behind it on the Strand or Oxford street.

To my mind it is advisable also that no motor licenses bo issued except to persons who have passed a driving test. None of your clever drivers are allowed on the road till they have proved, themselves competent, but any private motorist can if! he wishes drive away in tile car he has just purchased, even if he has never driven a yard before. Congestion is very frequently aggravated by the untrained driver who loses his head in traffic and drives too fast, causing accidents, or who shows such exaggerated caution that ho slows down, all the traffic behind him. If all drivers were, competent traffic could be carriod on safely at a much greater pace.

These alterations would 7 all help, but the best of all would be an. alteration in the usual type of motor-car. Very often cars to-day are undcr-engined, and have no reserve of power. In traffic they are slow to pick up. They miss their opportunities of moving forward quickly. However quick and clever the driver may be, the cars arc not alert enough in traffic.

My own.idea in car building has always been to construct cars with ample power and quick pick-up—that can be throttled down to- move at two miles per hour and without change of gearleap to any speed up to iseventy miles an hour. The use of cars of this modern type would help greatly in solving the 'congestion problem'.