Four Frictions

"Children should be seen and not hurt," pleads a roadside poster in a current upstate New York highway safety drive. Last week Commissioner William F. Carey of New York City's Sanitation Department, which operates more vehicles (3,000) than any other municipal department, declared that such temporary safety drives are not "worth a darn." Having tried them without success the Sanitation Department two years ago formed a permanent safety division whose sole job is to decrease accidents by rigorous investigation and constant regulation. Since then, accidents to the department's trucks have steadily declined until last month they reached a new low of .188 per 100 pieces of equipment.

An identical conclusion on a broader scale was announced last week in the August issue of FORTUNE in an article which digs deep into the underlying causes of the whole U. S. traffic problem. In 1935 some 827,000 U. S. automobile accidents killed 37,000 persons, permanently crippled 105,000, hurt 1,000,000 more, with a total property loss of some $1,600,000,000. One of the first to see that this carnage and waste on the highways was not due to a flock of local factors but to a few basic inefficiencies was a young Leland Stanford graduate named Miller McClintock.

Making traffic control the subject of his thesis at Harvard in 1924, red-headed Miller McClintock became the first man ever awarded a doctorate in traffic. Two years later, when Studebaker Corp. offered to finance a Harvard traffic bureau, Dr. McClintock was put in charge. Supported now by the Automobile Manufacturers Association, the Bureau and its chief are recognized as the No. 1 U. S. authority on traffic control, have produced a complete new theory of highway troubles. Says Dr. McClintock: "If we could apply all we know, we could eliminate 98% of all accidents, practically all congestion."

Called to Chicago in 1930 to study highway accidents, Dr. McClintock concluded that all accidents and congestion fit in four categories of friction: 1) medial, 2) intersectional, 3) marginal, 4) internal-stream. Medial friction occurs in the middle of the road of two opposing traffic streams, causes 17% of accidents, results in head-on collisions. Intersectional friction, which produces crossroad collisions, causes 19% of all highway accidents. Marginal friction (20%) is generated by bad road shoulders, abrupt curves, faulty banking and "fixed objects" such as trees, parked vehicles or pedestrians. Internal-stream friction (44%) is the conflict of faster and slower automobiles moving in the same direction. Its typical accidents: rear-end collision, sideswipe.

There are, according to Dr. McClintock, three fronts on which to attack this simplified accident picture--driver, automobile, road. The shortcomings of the nation's 40,000,000 drivers cause most accidents, but experts agree that it is hopeless to expect "voluntary rehabilitation." The driver must be externally restrained from killing himself. Against the overwhelming U. S. urge to go places fast, the idea of speed governors for automobiles has made no progress. Even if it did, it would do little good, for only 9% of all accidents are directly attributable to speeds of 50 m.p.h. or more. Structurally, the automobile is nearly perfect, only 5% of accidents arising from mechanical failure. This leaves only highway improvement as a real means to traffic safety.

U. S. roads have always lagged behind automobiles in technological improvement, are now almost universally too slow for the automobile, too dangerous for the driver. Of the 3,000,000 miles of U. S. rural road, backbone is the state system of 324,000 miles of primary highways, of which only one-half is hard surface, between towns. Usually considered the world's finest network, it is really, according to Expert McClintock, an inadequate, unscientific hodgepodge. Sole idea behind most of the system was to have bigger, harder roads. These inevitably caused more accidents. Less than 1% provide what experts now recognize as a fundamental necessity -- automatic means to correct the driver's mistakes. Nearly 97% of the primary system, which today carries 65% of U. S. traffic, is two-lane high way, standard 15 years ago, substandard now. To cure medial friction state highway engineers invented the three-lane road. This proved the most murderous of all roads as drivers fought for the middle lane. Multi-lane roads lessened medial friction, but caused more internal-stream and intersectional crashes.

The remedy is Dr. McClintock's "limited way," a road following hydraulic principles by "delivering traffic as in a sealed conduit past all conflicting eddies." It has four elements: 1) A dividing strip down the road's centre ; 2) over and underpasses with cloverleaf detours at every intersection; 3) denial to abutting property of direct access to the highway; 4) acceleration and deceleration lanes for fast and slow traffic. All four forms of friction are largely cured by these four elements. But few roads exemplify them all. One example is the Worcester (Mass.) Turnpike. It used an abandoned trolley right-of-way. Even so, the elaborate structure cost $239,000 per mile. This tremendous expense, dwarfing ordinary figures, is an effective hitch in the program. It will take years to create the 12,000 miles of such superhighways which are vitally needed today.

In the meantime, regulating drivers and automobiles are the sole makeshifts. In the driver's case, expert analysis proves that 15% of them cause nearly 100% of the accidents. These accident-prone drivers (whether speed maniacs, psychopaths, drunks or morons) can be policed off the roads. In this regard the states fail miserably. Four impose no restrictions on drivers; eight require only that a certain age be reached; twelve grant licenses on mere application; 24 require tests, which are almost universally insufficient. For the other 85% of drivers the great need is instruction. Indiana leads the way here, requiring 20 hours a semester of driving instruction in high schools. Third means of improvement is strict punishment. That this works was proven by Evanston, Ill., worst U. S. accident city of its size in 1928, safest now after inaugurating strict law enforcement, harsh penalties, immediate investigation.

Affecting the science of Traffic Control is one uncontrollable element--aroused public opinion. At present, after a notable din of propaganda started by J. C. Furnas' And Sudden Death (TIME, Aug. 12, 1935), public opinion gives evidence of being permanently aroused. Largely because of this permanent safety drive, automobile fatalities for the first five months of 1936 are 3-5% less than last year.

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