Facing Confusion

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 955, 24 April 1930, Page 10

Facing Confusion

TRAFFIC IN NEW YORK AUCKLAND hears a good deal of its traffic* problem. Earnest residents are prone to visit busy streets to ponder on the tremendous difficulties which beset the officers of the City Council’s traffic department and, every now and then, councillors attempt to conjure up the problems of the future. It is an excessively mild problem if one can develop a conception of the traffic which inundates New York.

Traffic, in whirring, restless streams, dominates New York life. It is as much a characteristic of the huge city as the skyscrapers which stride out from Manhattan. There is much to be said for the Englishman who said that responsible Europeans, giving their impressions of New York to newspaper reporters, should not go into rhapsodies over the stolid skyscrapers, but should talk of the everchanging aspects of the tides of traffic. New York represents the peak of traffic development, and its method of handling the problem are considerably in advance of those employed in European cities generally. The New York traffic control authorities are making efforts which would not discredit a Hercules in their almost frantic attempts to secure order from a threatening chaos. Traffic is bustled hither, slid thither, broken up, shunted and marshalled, and still there is an oppressing density of vehicles. One of the wholly unexpected effects of the traffic tangle has been the limitation of the height of skyscrapers. Engineers can successfully plan foundations which will withstand the enormous weight of 50 storey buildings; buildings can be erected which will resist tremendous wind pressures and support the population and the business of a large town —lor some of the skyscrapers are inhabited by thousands; civic authorities can provide water, drainage and fire-fighting facilities; but it has been found useless to build skyscrapers when the routes to the doors are choked by motor traffic. MANHATTAN SWAMPED

The heart of New York, Manhattan Island, is literally swamped with automobiles. Ten years ago, 223,000 motor vehicles were registered in New York. Now there are 750,000. In five years it is calculated that there will be 1,200,000.

In 1920 it required 1,383 traffic police to handle the traffic. Now, 2,653 are needed and the famous streetlight control system of Regulating traffic costs more than 250.000 dollars, compared with 7,500 dollars in 1920. The speed of motor traffic along certain portions of Fifth Avenue has dropped, during some hours of the day to 2.5 miles an hour. Sometimes, it is quicker to walk than to use a motor vehicle. Actually motor traffic is slower than the old horse trams, in this area. At one street junction no fewer than 57,896 motor vehicles passed in 12 hours. At Queensboro Bridge more than 86,000 vehicles pass every 24 hours; the Holland tunnels allowed another 15,000 vehicles a day to swell the already congested traffic of Lower Manhattan. Bus time-tables have been slowed up by 20 per cent. Taxicabs (there are 26,000 of them) suffer, too. Parking of privately-owned cars in side streets takes up almost 50 per cent, of the space. REMEDIES DEFEATED While remedies are being suggested the rising tide of motors overwhelms them. Chicago prohibited the parking of private cars in The Loop, the commercial heart of the city, and New York is considering compelling the use of private garages instead of parking in the streets. Already some buildings have been constructed to provide car space for all the needs of the tenants of the buildings. Garages of 20 storeys handle cars in lifts. Other plans are to restrict commercial haulage to night-time, necessitating a 24-hour day for business houses. Overhead bridges at crossings, more and deeper subways, elevated roadways, more stringent control of brakes to permit closer packing of traffic, more efficient traffic control, are some of the proposed remedies. A brief stoppage of traffic to allow a fire engine to pass is felt for several blocks. As yet,- Auckland is spared the true horrors of traffic.