Highways and Motor Transport

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7. It is to the public interest, as well as to the interest of the respective carriers, that the economic limitations of each type of carrier be recognized, that the railroads be permitted to discontinue unprofitable service to which the motor is better suited, and that the motor abandon its efforts to handle general traffic over excessive distances. However, because of the public interest which affects the operation of railroads, they have performed and must continue to perform some service which is unprofitable, chiefly in territory where the performance of highway transportation would also be unprofitable. If the railIf the rail roads are to be deprived of a substantial share of their more remunerative traffic through unfair and, to the trader, uneconomical methods, the traffic remaining to the railroads must take on an added burden in the form of higher rates or impaired service. In all cases where the railroad can handle traffic with greater or equal efficiency, all factors being considered, the public interest requires that it be allowed to do so. Unprofitable steam railroad service can in some cases be successfully replaced by the use of self-propelled railroad motor cars.

8. To insure to the public continuity and reliability of service, sound financial organization of motor transport is necessary, as well as public regulation of common

carrier motor service.

9. Passenger bus transport should be so regulated as to secure the best service to the public, certificates of public convenience and necessity as already required in many states being a useful means of insuring reliable and continuous service. Rail lines can often advantageously extend or supplement their service by bus lines, and in states where this is now prohibited such restrictions should be abolished.

10. Regulation of traffic and of size, weight and speed of motor vehicles by states and municipalities having control should be made more uniform within states and as between states. Regulation of common-carrier operations of motor vehicles, including rate regulation, should be handled by the federal or state authorities, under the commissions which now control the operations of rail and water carriers.

11. Trunk highways in any area should be able to carry the normal vehicular traffic of that area, and, if the traffic economically justifies the use of especially heavy trucks, highways with stronger subbases must be provided. This constitutes a problem requiring particular attention in the design of highway systems and in the regulation of traffic. In other respects present types of highways, present routes connecting principal centers of population and production, and the present trend in size, weight and speed restrictions of vehicles using highways show a rational system of highway development that should be continued.

12. Investigations now under way by the U. S. Bureau of Public Roads, state highway departments and other agencies to determine more fully the economic role of the motor vehicle should be continued.

The passenger motor car is thus virtually a development of the last 20 years, while the motor truck has been a factor hardly half that long.

Inevitably this rapid growth of a new transportation facility has had its effect on the old facilities. Inevitably there has been, and still is, misunderstanding and conflict in the fields of the old and new facilities, and the old ones are only at the beginning of a readjustment of their activities to meet the new conditions. Meanwhile the new facility, with inadequate organization and often with little knowledge of its own operating costs, has in some cases attempted to handle traffic for which it is not fitted, thus producing an incorrect popular impression as to its proper role in our national transportation system. There is already evidence of tendency toward better understanding of this role and toward increasing cooperation of the motor with all other carriers. This report points out ways to further and make effective this cooperation.

The motor vehicle has proved its unquestionable value in our economic system. It has greatly extended the farmer's field of operation, bringing much additional land under cultivation. It has brought new sources of raw materials within economic reach of markets. quickened the industrial life and facilitated the processes of distribution. All these influences have contributed to our national prosperity but have thrown an enormous new tonnage upon our rail carriers.

The congestion of transportation today centers around the terminals of our great cities, and it is at these terminals that the railroads find the greatest difficulty in keeping pace with the public need. With hardly an exception the main tracks of our railroads have sufficient capacity for the movement of more freight than can be offered to them. Still, in spite of this fact, the railroads are constantly faced with a demand for more and better terminal facilities in the face of prohibitive real-estate values and other stupendous obstacles to expansion. Here lies the greatest opportunity for the motor truck. By the use of motor transport the facilities of the terminals can be so expanded as greatly to increase their capacity.

Both within and outside the terminal areas motor transport, to be of its utmost value to the public, needs two things-sound organization and wise regulation. Sound organization, which implies accurate understanding of costs, methods and the economic limitations of motor service, will do much to insure dependability of service. But in the public interest, and in fairness to all carriers, there must in addition be proper regulation and an equitable system of taxation.

Hurley Named For Debt Board Edward N. Hurley, Chicago business man and former chairman of the Shipping Board, was nominated by President Coolidge in mid-January to the Democratic vacancy on the Debt Funding Commission.

Is it any wonder that our ships cannot succeed in free trade competition with the ships of the world, in foreign carrying? Certainly not!

VOL. 3 No. 4

Twenty-five Cents a Copy

N

OTWITHSTANDING the countless references to Jamaica Bay during the past fifteen years, in the daily press, before the governing bodies of our civic corporation, and in the speeches of its enthusiasts, it is still relatively unknown to a large, entirely too large, proportion of the inhabitants of Greater New York. Why? Because the feverish business activity, for which the metropolis is noted, claims so much of the average citizen's time, and so many new wonders constantly confront him, that he has little. curiosity about matters not directly connected with his own business, or affecting his immediate neighborhood. He takes even less interest in the civic affairs of his own city than he does in politics. For the benefit of this average citizen, therefore, it is pertinent to ask What and where is Jamaica Bay," the improvement of which was characterized by the present Mayor some six years ago, as the most important and necessary public work that could possibly be undertaken by the City of New York at that time.

Location of Jamaica Bay

Jamaica Bay is a perfect land locked harbor at the very gateway of New York City, larger in extent than the combined principal portions of the harbors of Liverpool, Antwerp, Hamburg, and Rotterdam. It is a body of water thirty-two square miles in areas, directly adjoining the Atlantic Ocean, and situated in the Boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, entirely within the limits of the Greater City and in the southeastern portion thereof. Its size can hardly be conceived without viewing its expanse. The indentations along its shore line are such that in its present undeveloped condition it presents a water front more than twenty-five miles long, which, with the building of piers, could be made to provide one hundred and fifty miles of berthing space. Dispersed throughout its area are countless hummocks and small islands, which, far from being detrimental to its ultimate development, will be an important contribution thereto, as they will form the foundations for two large city-owned islands to be created in the center of the bay from the material excavated in the making of a marginal channel wider than the East River.

Immense Area of Jamaica Bay

The magnitude of this development can perhaps be best evidenced by comparing its size and water frontage with that of the entire city. Greater New York, including the water area within its boundaries, covers approximately 483 square miles, of which 308 square miles is land of such shape that the shore line is 578 miles long-only a little over 100 miles of which has been improved--and 175 square miles is water. The Borough of Manhattan, in which two-thirds of the total shipping in the harbor has hitherto been accommodated, contains only 20.7 square miles of land, and 43.2 miles of water frontage-seven and a half per

Before taking up the details of the project itself, the work done, and to be done, upon it, three general statements can be made which clearly indicate the wisdom of making this particular addition to our port facilities. These are:

(1)-The congested condition of the harbor of New York in times of normal business activity has rendered it necessary for the city to materially enlarge its port facilities, or lose a considerable proportion, not only of its prospective business, but even of that which it now has.

This statement needs no other demonstration than a reference to the newspaper files during the period of the war. It was the congested shipping situation. which led to the creation of the New York Port Authority in 1921, just as the prospect of this congestion had led to the appointment of the original Jamaica Bay Commission as far back as 1906, and the truth of this statement is an admitted fact.

(2) The growth of the Greater City in the direction of Jamaica Bay makes this the logical location for an addition to the harbor within the limits of the city itself.

By consulting our official statistics, we may learn. that from 1900 to 1920 the population of Greater New York increased from 3,437,202 to 5,620,948 or 631⁄2 per cent, while in this same period the combined population of the Boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens increased from 1,319,581 to 2,487,378 or 881⁄2 per cent, and that of the district adjoining Jamaica Bay increased from 154,080 to 623,738 or 305 per cent. During this same twenty-year period the increase of population in Manhattan was only 23.6 per cent, from 1,850,093 to 2,284,103 and in the ten years from 1910 to 1920 there actually was a decrease of 47,439. Inasmuch as the geographical center of the Greater City is nearer to the shores of Jamaica Bay than to the waterfront of the East and Hudson Rivers, and there is this marked trend of population in its direction, it is obvious, that it is the logical location for an addition to the water front of New York Cty.

(3) Jamaica Bay either does, or can easily and economically be made to, fulfill the eight requirements of an ideal harbor, which should:

1. Serve the needs of an important region.

2. Furnish an opportunity for the co-ordination of rail and water transportation.