OCR Text |
Show FOR UNIFORM SYSTEM The maximum use of roads can only come when they are made safe for maximum use. A dangerous road will always be less used than a safe one, and a road dangerously used by some will be less used by others than a road wisely used by all. At the present time two States give licenses to drivers without any examination exam-ination of any kind. Ask for it, pay a fee, and get it. Drive anyway safely, dangerously, drunkenly, these States apparently do not care! , Ten States have no age limit on drivers; you can give a child of five a car and tell him to drive to town, without violating the law. Naturally, these States do not have roads as safe as other States which insist on ability to drive before granting grant-ing a license and recognize the fact that a ton and a half of steel at speed in no missile to put in the hands or the judgment of a small child. One of the great benefits which will result from the establishment ot national highways throughout the Nation will be uniform laws for their use. Such laws will not in anyway conflict with State laws, for the States through which the highways pass will have equal voice in the making of national highway laws. It is evident that when a road is national na-tional property the Nation is responsible respon-sible for who shall and who shall not drive upon it and the speeds at which driving shall be done. More and more is it coming to be believed that great trunk-line highways must be more than single roads; they have must have a central span for fast going go-ing and other spans for slower going. The way to make speed safe is not to hold it down but make a place for it. But the immediate question is not so much safety from speeding as safety from incompetence of driving as well as incompetence of road buildmg, which permits the dangerous curve, the unfenced bend near a bluff, the too narrow road, the absence of illumination, etc. These, and the problems of no laws or poor laws, may be solved in time, under any system, but will be solved speedily and solved well by the establishment of a system of national na-tional highways, great trunk lines, built and forever maintained by the National Government, which will also supervise their use and police their length. |