OCR Text |
Show WIDER HIGHWAYS ARE GREAT NEED Four Traffic Lanes Would Soon Pay for Themselves. (By E. E. Duffy) Motoring toward a large metropolitan metropol-itan center on a sunny Saturday afternoon, aft-ernoon, when wheeled hordes are bound for the open country, reveals pertinent facts about- highways. The first thing that is forcibly impressed im-pressed upon the motorist going against the heavy traffic flow1 is that two lane roads are decidedly not wide enough usually by two lanes. Slow trucks, crawling old hulks of cars, byper-cautious drivers hold back traffic until a Jam of cars a quarter mile or so long results. Human Element Enters. Drivers driven to distraction by delays de-lays then suddenly dart out from their prescribed lanes of travel when oncoming on-coming traffic permits of a passing. Here, the well-known human element enters in, for if a driver misjudges the open spaces a collision may result re-sult A four-bonr ride against this wave of country-bound traffic brought several narrow escape that cannot be recounted without a rise In blood pressure. In addition, to the dangers present In forging ahead on the two-lane road, there is the inability to get speed in keeping with the temper of modern cars, most of which travel some fifty miles an hour without excessive vibration. vi-bration. Fifty miles an hour is not a dangerous speed, yet it cannot be conscientiously attained on -the narrow nar-row road when cars are thick. Another criticism of the rural road, In remote regions as well as metropolitan metro-politan areas, is that it usually passes through the center of every hamlet and town on the route. One little town In southern Wisconsin, with a single traffic light on the main highway high-way running through on the chief business street, Is frequently nothing short ef choked with automobiles that have no business there. Must Be Widened. Narrow roads must be widened as fast as communities can make finances available, for without doubt congestion conges-tion and accidents are costing as much or more than wider roads. Two-lane Two-lane roads are suitable for traltic only where week-day travel is light and week-end travel moderate. A heavy volume of traffic demands roads at least four lanes in width. Accidents would be reduced considerably if by road builders' magic all congested routes were to be widened. That would mean a distinct lowering of car Insurance rates. |