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Show ARCHAIC STREETS IIECXLEJRIVERS Many Towns ad Villages Have Pavements Designed De-signed for Horse. (By E. E. DUFFY.) ' Street and road progress has been rapid within the last few years, so rapid that numberless communities are still building pavements that are not at all suited for the heavy influx of automobiles. Towns and cities the country over are largely equipped with pavements that were designed for the leisurely horse, who reigned when loads and vehicles were light and when bumps and rough spots didn't matter. Modernize Designs. Highway authorities are In accord on the thought that every community should modernize street designs and have a rehabilitation program underway under-way with the purposeful replacement of antique highway surfaces by pavements pave-ments that are both smooth and long wearing. Aside from the wear and tear that poor pavements inflict on the motorist's motor-ist's car and pocketbook, they also account ac-count in a large measure for traffic congestion. Even small towns find that the bulk of the traffic Is confined to a few through streets which have been 'well paved and that countless other streets carry little traffic because be-cause of holey, jagged bumpy surfaces. sur-faces. Spring Is in the offing and the havoc of winter Is becoming more and more apparent. Chuck holes in inferior street surfaces are as much harbingers of spring as a game of marbles on the corner lot. Coming of Repair Gang. Year in and year out the coming of spring means the coming of the street repair gang and the going of taxpayers' tax-payers' money. Most street repairs come out of a community's general funds, and the taxpayer doesn't worry much because he Isn't levied directly for this repair. But he foots the bill just the same. If street repairs were paid for by direct levies, taxpayers would insist on better pavements. Modern traffic demands smooth hard surfaces, and where they are not supplied sup-plied automobile operating costs are high, pavement upkeep is out of line, and satisfaction Is conspicuous by Its non-presence. In the words of one prominent city official, "Keep repair gangs off the streets by building the repairs Into the pavement when the pavement Is laid." |