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Show DEATH TRAPS ON ROAD SIDES Highway Authority Condemns Present Type of Construction Not Sufficiently Suf-ficiently Wide. The present type of highways Is equipped with death traps , on each side, says George C. Diehl, chairman of the good roads board of the Amer lean Automobile association, in an article in Motor. He condemns tin present ditch system of drainage anu advocates a system of underground drain pipes, making ditchless roads ol our highways. "The highways of the future," sayj Mr. Diehl, "must have roadways oi sutliclent width not merely for safety but for the comfortable confidence of the driver. A car owner may conn through alive at the end of a day's-iun day's-iun on a popular thoroughfare, but the condition of his nerves after he has balanced himself 50 times an hour between a yawning ditch at his right and whizzing cars at his left, Is something some-thing that need not be described to the average driver, because he has been there. "Fear of an open ditch breeds over-caution over-caution that drives men to the other extreme and brings about collisions. On fairly wide roadways with deep ditches drivers are reluctant to use only one-half of the roadway, since a momentary slip means disaster. Allowance Al-lowance for a two or three-foot margin mar-gin of safety by drivers between their cars and the ditch induces the effective effec-tive width four or five feet. Safety and comfort demand the discontinuance discontinu-ance of deep ditches. "On a pleasant Sunday afternoon in the touring season, probably most of these people are on the road. Every effort should be made to care for their safety. The roads ought to be made as safe as human ingenuity can make them, instead of being fitted with death traps on each side," lie cop-eludes. |