Clearance.
—The New York State Highway Commission makes it a rule to secure the following clearance:
When a highway passes under a railroad the crown elevation is made 13.5 feet below the bottom of the bridge girder, and the minimum right angle distance between abutments is taken as 26 feet. The distance from the base of the rail to the bottom of the girder varies with the span of the bridge and ranges from 2 ft. 2 in. for a 30-foot span to 2 ft. 41⁄2 in. for a 110-foot span.
Where the highway crosses over the railroad a minimum clearance of 21.0 feet is required from the top of the rail to the bottom of the highway bridge girders. The span or right angle opening will vary with the number of tracks and the standards of the railways. It is, of course, well to have a clear opening over the entire used roadway. The practice in some places, of having piers or piles in the center of the road, unless there is placed around these a safety zone or park extending each way along the street so that traffic may be separated some little distance before coming to the pier, is not to be commended.
Pedestrians.
—While it has been said that 90 per cent of the accidents are due to lack of caution on the part of the driver, it must not be thought that there is no contributory negligence.
Pedestrians constantly go across the street without looking up to right or left. Others look with a leer as much as to say, “hit me if you dare,” and leisurely proceed. They will not hurry one bit, thus causing a slow down of the approaching motor and that in turn of the next, and the next, producing a congestion in traffic with its known liabilities. Each party has a right to the street, but courtesy should be extended on both sides. When there is no traffic officer, motorists should remember to give pedestrians time to cross, and pedestrians should hurry a little so as not to delay motor traffic.
Jay Walking.
—Another source of danger which can not be too strongly condemned is the practice of “jay walking.” The driver of a car along a crowded thoroughfare is never sure but what some person will pop out from behind a parked vehicle and start across the street directly ahead of his machine. By the ordinances of most cities parking is prohibited near the ends of blocks and the proper walking spaces. Vision is there clear to the sidewalks. The motorist is expecting pedestrians and is on the lookout for them. But in the middle of the block with parked cars along each side with travel more rapid than over the walking spaces it is difficult to avoid hitting the exasperating jay walker.