MUNICIPALITIES Organized 1897 Affiliated with the Bureau of Municipal Reference, University of California OFFICERS President, Dr. JOHN J. SIPPY, District Health Officer, Stockton Secretary-Treasurer, H. A. MASON, Bond and Ordinance Expert of the City of San Francisco Official Printers: A. Carlisle & Co., San Francisco INFORMATION BUREAU The League of California Municipalities maintains in connection with the Secretary's Office, a Bureau for furnishing city and town officials with Information on municipal affairs, and loaning coples of new ordinances and specifications. Officials are urged to make a free use of this Bureau. Kindly send a self-addressed stamped envelope In all cases. Members of the California League of Municipalities OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE LEAGUE OF CALIFORNIA MUNICIPALITIES Entered as second-class matter March 22, 1913, at the Post Office at San Francisco, California, under the act of March 3, 1879. Proceedings of the Twenty-eighth Annual Convention of the League at Yosemite Valley August 16th to 20th, 1926 (Continued) SESSION OF THE MORNING OF AUGUST 19, 1926 MR. ALLEN W. WRIGHT, Presiding THE TRAFFIC PROBLEM MR. MASON (San Francisco): The meeting will please come to order for a moment. The following arrangement has been decided upon as the order of business for today. The several departments will meet in separate session this morning for the purpose of concluding their business. The Department of City Engineers, Street Superintendents and Councilmen, will meet here after a little while to elect their officers and conclude their business. At 11:30 the entire body will assemble in this room to listen to the department reports or the reports on the election of officers; and final adjournment at an early hour, as early as possible this afternoon. We will probably be able to conclude by 12:30. That will give everybody abundant opportunity to go sightseeing this afternoon, those of you who cannot get out of the Valley by the regular route by evening. Most of us will want to wait over and leave early in the morning. That will give those an opportunity to enjoy sight-seeing, and I think that arrangement meets with the approval of everyone. The Department of Engineers will now conclude their business. The other departments will conclude their business and make their final report here at 11:30 when the General Body will convene. Is that satisfactory? MR. WRIGHT (Presiding): I think that is satisfactory, because most of the departments have not had notice of the final session. Have everybody here at 11:30 so we can start promptly. MR. MASON (San Francisco): Is Mr. Van Alstine of Long Beach in the room? MR. BECK (Long Beach): Mr. Van Alstine has gone on a trip, and he asked me to get someone to take charge of the meeting for him and I have asked Mr. Barzellotti of Lodi to act as chairman for Mr. Van Alstine. MR. WRIGHT (Presiding): Mr. Barzellotti, will you come forward and take charge of the meeting? I will turn the chair over to Mr. Barzellotti. MR. BARZELLOTTI (Lodi): The Department of City Engineers, Councilmen and Street Superintendents will come to order. The first thing on the program this morning is a paper on Traffic Control by Mr. C. F. Todd, member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and President pro tem of the California Traffic League. The paper will be read by Mr. Mason, Mr. Todd being absent. MR. MASON (San Francisco): Mr. Chairman, and ladies and gentlemen and delegates to the 28th Annual Convention of the League of California Municipalities. (Mr. Mason then read a paper by Mr. Todd on traffic control.) We regret that Mr. Todd was detained this morning and therefore was not able to present his paper in person. Many of you have met him but I am sure a further acquaintanceship with the gentleman will leave a favorable impression with you. We of San Francisco who know Mr. Todd respect him very highly, and he certainly has shown a great deal of interest in the matter of traffic control and regulations. His heart is in that work and I am sure he will receive every assistance and encouragement from this organization, because his purpose is a very worthy one, so I bespeak for him and all those associated with him the fullest sympathy and support of this organization in the work. I have no doubt that the committee on resolutions will unanimously report the ordinance which was presented by him for the entire body. uniform traffic ordinance that will apply to traffic conditions in the smallest as well as the largest towns, so that when you drive through a town, the same regulations, the same signs, the same color of paint employed, and the same traffic regulations will apply to each town; so that if you go through a little town like Selma or some other little town, you will find the same regulations there which are in force in San Francisco or Oakland or any of the other large cities. What we want to do is to get this body to endorse a uniform traffic rule so we can go before the state bodies and put it up in some kind of a definite form, and they won't think "Well, this is just a body of four or five men who are trying to put over something or trying to get a few pleasure trips out of it." Each man connected with this traffic problem is wrapped up in traffic, and traffic is one of the most serious problems we have throughout the whole country today. Everybody that drives a machine knows how miserable it is when you drive I wish to thank you on behalf of Mr. through one town and break some traffic Todd. MR. BARZELLOTTI (Presiding): I don't know whether there is any possibility of discussion of the subject since Mr. Todd who wrote the paper is absent, but if any of you gentlemen want to start talking about this proposition in any way, discussion always serves a useful purpose. Captain Murphy of Fresno is a member of the committee on traffic and is present. Perhaps he may say a word? CAPTAIN MURPHY (Fresno): Mr. President, I don't know that I can say a whole lot. I got in a little bit late to hear the paper which was read, but I will say this: That I tried to attend all the different meetings of the various bodies. I was very much pleased yesterday by the gentleman from Beverly Hills. All these things some way or other mix in with traffic, and what we are trying to do is to formulate a uniform traffic rule or a regulation or make some kind of a blunder and a traffic officer or a motorcycle cop will give you a tag and you have to take the tag to the police headquarters and all that. At the present time it is almost a foregone conclusion, if you do much driving, you are going to make some mistake, or violate some traffic regulation in some town even though you know the traffic regulations by heart of the town in which you live. If we have a uniform traffic regulation throughout this state all that will be avoided. That is what we are trying to do-to get some uniform traffic rule throughout the state, and if we can put California on the map as the first state that puts that over we will probably have no difficulty in getting the other states of the country to come into line so that whatever part of the country you go to, the same traffic rule or rules will apply. That is With this uniform traffic ordinance, which is framed in what you might call a skeleton form, each town can make its own little rule and still be within the limits of the uniform ordinance. what we want to do and we certainly hope this organization will throw its shoulder to the wheel. You go along on the state highways today; you are driving along at a comfortable rate of speed, although you are not observing your speedometer, you are unconsciously violating the speed law on that road; a motorcycle man would come up and approach you in a hard-boiled way-although I think you will find throughout the whole of the State of California that the motorcycle traffic officers of this state are respectful and courteous and in every way gentlemen all the way through. We have been making every effort to make it easier for motorists and when we catch a man that is hard-boiled and does not use any sense of reasoning with the public, he finds himself in some other branch of the service. kindness and explains where you are wrong and lets you go on your way, you, the next time when you come to that town, will have a very friendly feeling toward that town and toward every police officer in it. By sifting out of various police departments we are getting a force of men whom we believe are a credit to the service and who are, in every respect, capable of handling the situation, and showing every consideration for the motorist, especially the strangers, and it is with this idea in view that we are trying to put over this uniform traffic ordinance, and in that way you will find that the motoring public will get through the towns much quicker and get to their destination much quicker. CAPTAIN HEATH (Los Angeles): I won't attempt to go into a discussion of the details of the traffic regulations. The only thing I want to call to your attention this morning is the fact that the traffic problem has become a very serious one, so serious that Secretary Hoover called a National Conference on the subject, and In going through a town the first man after the first conference they realized you come in contact with is probably a that the first big step to be taken in the uniformed traffic officer. The other solution of the problem was to enforce officers will probably be walking their the law. As a result of that committees beats day in and day out and you never were appointed, and at the last session come in contact with them. The motor- the principal thing that was accomplished cycle traffic officer is the first man you was the adoption of a uniform set of come in contact with and your first im- traffic laws which they have recompression is the impression of that town. mended be adopted throughout the If he is a hard-boiled traffic officer you United States. What we are striving for figure right on the jump they are all the is to continue that work and to go even same and he may be the only man in that futrher, as Captain Murphy has told you, department that is hard-boiled. and create a uniform traffic ordinance On the other hand, if he uses a little throughout the State of California. The Traffic Problem in the State of New York An address delivered before the 17th Annual Meeting of the Conference of Mayors and other Municipal Officials of the State of New York, held at Schenectady, June 16, 17 and 18, 1926. By W. GRAHAM COLE, Safety Engineer With the tremendous increase in the use of automobiles within the past few years, the safe and expeditious movement of traffic has become one of the most important problems confronting the authorities of American cities. Streets which were designed to accommodate vehicles drawn by faithful old dobbin at a speed of only a few miles per hour, were suddenly forced to carry thousands of miniature locomotives capable of high speeds and controlled by the whims and fancies of individuals, many of whom at few years before hardly knew the difference between a steering wheel and a carburetor. It is It is obviously impossible to redesign entirely the streets, particularly in the business portions of cities where traffic congestion is greatest and where property values are high, in order adequately to accommodate this new traffic. possible, however, to make some changes at present, to prepare plans for essential future changes, to consider the needs of traffic in laying out new streets and to impose certain control methods which will furnish some relief to congestion in the overcrowded streets of the modern city. The suddenness with which the traffic problem has overtaken municipalities. has of itself imposed an additional problem in the city administration-that of securing necessary funds for properly handling the situation. The individual motorist and pedestrian are quick to express themselves regarding the congestion and dangers of the streets and to condemn those in authority for the existing conditions. On the other hand, public opinion does not appreciate the fact that the traffic problem is one which requires proper financing and is really as much a function of the city as the policing and cleaning of the streets, the fighting of fires, the teaching of children, health administration and the other city duties which have been undertaken since the very beginning of city life. The city administration, therefore, has two responsibilities in regard to traffic: first, to relieve conditions as much as present circumstances will permit and second, to gradually educate public opinion to the point where the requirements of traffic will be appreciated in their true proportions and adequate funds and cooperation provided. As this latter responsibility is one, the entire fulfillment of which will require years of definite effort, the first is the one which demands immediate attention. It is expressed in the subject upon which I have been invited to speak this evening-namely, "How to Solve the Traffic Problem at the Least Expense." As this problem is an ever changing one, its complete and permanent solution can never be ob tained. Frequently the cheapest methods are in the end the most expensive. Permit me, therefore, to change the subject |