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Show EFFECTIVE CURE - FOR SPEED MANIA '" I Not all persons upon becoming ' jy the owner of a motor vehicle im agine the price paid for the machine ma-chine includes ownership of the streets, b ut a good many seem , to have that impression. The change from dodging a car to being dodged is apt to be one in which the rights of the pedes-, trian are quickly forgotten. In our large cities the loss of life( from automobiles and motorcycles motorcy-cles has grown to be something frightful, and largely unnecessary. unneces-sary. In some European cities ' - the remedy is to arrest and fine the one who is so slow and stupid ' i as to get run over that is, if he - survives. But no such process- I . of law will not be tolera ted here, : nor should it. On the other hand, motor cars are a modern necessity neces-sity and the streets are no long-I long-I er a safe place in which children S can play. There must be mod eration and caution on the part of both. The enforcement of a reasonable speed reduces the acci- ; dent and death rate to a mini mum, and Chicago has demonstrated demon-strated that such a reform can be easily accomplished in a fevy, days. Several deaths each Week from motors had rolled up a total of 75 in a short time, and some- I' thing had to be done. This is the cure, and it was accomplished in a few days: While 15 miles an hour is the legal high speed, : 20 miles was unofficially assumed I to be the limit. Anyone ex- j ceeding that speed was promptly arrested and fined heavily, with ) the promise that the amount would be doubled for a second offense Instead of the cases i being brought before some Pi ittMMmttMf riendiy magistrate in the dis- trict where the arrest was made, all cases were heard by one judge. This permitted a system of records, with the promise that something besides fines would bo imposed after the second offense. t For about a week the fines og-' gregated over $500 a day and then suddenly dropped. The effect 'was very noticeable after the third day j at the end of the first week there was really very little violation of the rules. The reform was accomplished so easily eas-ily and quickly, that there seems no need for any other speed-infested city to longer tolerate such a needless condition of danger. H. H. Windsor in the September Popular Mechanics Magazine |