MEDFORD MAIL TRIBUNE. MEDFORD. OREGON
THURSDAY, MAY 11. 1961
A 3
Los Angeles Roads Plagued by as Many Cars as There Are People
Los Angeles-OIFS-The jopu
low . and widespread Lot An
geles, metropolitan area stiU u
growing and one of its major
growing pains -is a king-site
traffic' problem which is-a
daily headache to most motor
ists. :- - ; .::
' At last count-as of Dec!' 31,
1960-the . city had . an esti
mated population of 2,515,
400. An estimated 2.9 million
vehicles jam the city's streets
every 24 hours. .
Los Angeles county, has al
most 2.5 million passenger car
registrations' - the largest in
the nation - plus thousands
more vehicles such as buses
and trucks.' "'. ! : '.
- These figures alone make
traffic experts shudder,, but
to make matters -worse the
area has no mass rapid tran
sit system, and people either
like to or are forced, to drive
their cars more than in other
areas. The sprawling city en
compasses 457.2 square miles
and it seems sometimes like
a day's journey, to .go from
one end. of it to the; other. ,
Can't . Improve . ' y ; .- ,i
?l the traffic problem can't
Improve because most experts
predict the population will in
crease to at-least 4 million by
1980. - . - - . -
There' are approximately
100 miles of freeway in op
eration in the city and the
total will soon reach' 278 miles
under a construction program
coordinated by the State Di
vision of .Highways. .
' Construction goes on' daily
-new -lanes are being added
to old freeways where pos-sible-and:
new freeways are
near completion in the hope
of easing the traffic pressure.
In peak hours, morning and
evening,, the treeway system
is loaded to capacity and trips
that take,' half-hour during
relatively' light, hours may
take twice that long during
the. rush.
One of the major phases of
the over-all plan to ease traf
fic is an attempt to lure peo
ple into mass transit facilities
-the bus and streetcar system
operated by the Metropolitan
Transit Agency. (MTA). "
, MTA carries about 750,000
passengers daily . on some 90
lines, serving a four-county
area that covers nearly 5,000
square miles and has a popu
lation of 7 million. 'But the
service, largely . . on surface
streets, cannot be -' called
rapid.; '- ;, ?." : ;' j V
An engineering' firm1 has
recommended a - master plan
for rapid transit with an over
head high-speed' network
branching out' from the heart
of the city. The, engineers rec
ommend use of electrically
propelled cars on pneumatic
rubber tires running on con
crete tracks. The cars, linked
in trains, each would carry
54 ' passengers and would
travel at an average of 35 to
40 miles an hour. It is esti
mated the traveling time be
tween the downtown area and
outlying points would be cut
in half. Cost of installing the
initial 74.9 miles of .the sys-
Two From Area Named
To Student Senate
" Corvallis - Dennis Caird,
602 Third ' it., Jacksonville,
and Sonja Lee, 2146 Hillcrest
rd., Medford, have been elect
ed members of the student
senate group at Oregon State
university. . .
' The senate is the campus
student governing body., It is
made up of elected represen
tatives from each- school on
the campus: Caird will repre
sent the school of forestry, and
Miss' Lee will represent the
school, of home economics.
They , are both juniors this
year..' ,
. The new student leaders
will take office later this term
and serve throughout the
1961-62 school year.
Car Safety Belt ;
Measure Turned Down
Salem - (UPD The Senate
Wednesday defeated 19-10 the
car safety belt measure. '
It' would have made safety
belts mandatory on all new
cars sold in Oregon beginning
in 1962.. . ,
tern was estimated at $529,-
700,000.
"The big question is how to
pay for it," said Ernest R.
Gerlach, MTA's chief engi
neer. Gerlach, a graduate of Le
high University who has work
ed on traffic problems in
Chicago, Cincinnati and New
York, said the area's present
traffic trouble is due to lack
of planning 20 or so years
ago. He said no one foresaw
the tremendous growth po
tential of the area.
Gerlach smiles at the sug
gestion that, private car pools
can solve the traffic problem.
"We have the biggest car
pool you could want," he
said. "We can take 50 riders
at a time, and they have no
driving or parking problems."
The private car pool idea
has not gone over in a big way
here, according to another
traffic expert, A. L. Hutchin
son, acting manager of the
City Traffic Department.
Common Problem .
"It's a problem common to
the western United States,"
he said. "People have been
brought up on the convenience
of having a set of -wheels
handy. . Most drivers don't
want to take the responsibil
ity of a pool. For instance,
the driver can t stay down
town after work if he wants
to and it interferes with his
personal life."
Traffic manager Sarh Tay
lor recently suggested that car
pool drivers be given a "bon
us" in the form of a reduction
in auto license fees as an in
centive, but the-idea doesn't
seem to have taken hold.
' Hutchison believes that au
tomatic traffic signals are the
least costly method of con
trolling the stream of vehicles.
Automatic computors have
been installed to regulate the
flow on many main surface
arteries. For example; there
is one computor at Hutch
ison's City Hall office that
regulates the flow of traffic
on Wilshire Blvd. at 36 inter
sections. The mechanical brain
receives information from
radar receivers and pressure
bars on the street and con
trols the "go" and "stop"
signals.
The Traffic Department has
tried most of the standard
remedies-one-way streets, re
verse lanes morning and eve
ning, and advocated stagger
ed working hours to spread
the flow of traffic.
Many of them depend on
public acceptance. One-way
streets, for example, run into
opposition from merchants af
fected. At present, the city uses
what it calls the "share the
green" system. Motor and
pedestrian traffic go simul
taneously at an intersection
for a period, but then a light
flashes "don't walk" to give
cars a chance to make turns
unhampered.
The men who have the traf
fic problems on their hands
are convinced of one thlng
the full cooperation of the
public is needed to make any
reforms effective.
MTA board Chairman A. J.
Eyraud put it this way: "Com
munity acceptance will be a
major factor in determining
the authority's policy. There
is no intent on the part of
the MTA board to pursue or
build a plan unacceptable to
the public."
Dr. Taylor Elected
To Josephine Group
Ashland - Dr. Arthur S.
Taylor, chairman of the social
science division at Southern
Oregon college, has been
elected an honorary member
of the Josephine County His
torical Society. -
The society operates a mu
seum in Kerby, and is plan
ning on opening a museum
in Grants Pass,
Other historical societies of
which Dr. Taylor Is a member
include Shasta County, Sis
kiyou County, Idaho, Mercer
County, Illinois, Southern
Oregon, and New York State.
HEALTH BILL REVAMPED
SaIem-(UPD-Voting 19-10, the
Senate has approved and re
turned to the House a dras
tically - revamped mental
health bill.
THE
DANMOORE
HOTEL
. 1217 SW. Morrison St.
PORTLAND, OREGON "
All transient guests. All those who
com, return. Rate not high, not
low. Free garage, TV's and radios.
Reputation for cloanlinou.
Children Under i
Seven No Charge
GIFTS TO KEEP MOM
4
Xv tor
x 4
i
- i
if
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Kenmore 3 Speed
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S)88
Here's the low-priced key to faster meal
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:: Kenmore
Deep Fryer
10"
Mom will enioy this
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Kenmore
Automatic
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some chrome-plated body;
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Kenmore Automatic and
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wemm
I A
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Exquisite Boxed Jewelry Necklace and Earring sets
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MOTHER'S DAY
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From' $2 plus tax
V Hera are bright ideas .
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New kenmore "super" hair
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