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Newspaper Page Text
tT,JF&m $pr- As heavy traffic is barred from boulevards, it goes onto the streets where street cars run, and there delays street cars by using the car tracks. The biggest hindrance to rapid transit in Chicago on surface lines is the use of the car tracks by wagons, trucks and other freight vehicles of all sorts and descriptions. Much better time could be made and much better service to hundreds of thousands of people would result if heavy traffic were kept off the street car tracks and di verted to the boulevards. The city of Chicago wasn't laid out for automobiles. The streets are not wide enough for parking purposes downtown, yet owners of autos are permitted to narrow downtown streets by leaving their autos in the streets to save garage charges. The boulevards are maintained at public expense for practically the exclusive use of the comparatively few citizens who are rich enough to own automobiles. And because of this special privilege to auto own ers, the hundreds of thousands who work for a living are1 delayed going to and coming from work daily on street cars. If no traffic were barred from Jackson and Wash ington boulevards, there would be better service on the street cars that run on Madison and Van Buren streets. Of course, boulevard property is more valuable -for residence purposes with traffic barred, but the people who live off the boulevards have to help keep up' the boulevards, and many of them suffer inconvenience be cause of the exclusiveness of those boulevards. Boulevards are great for the owners of automobiles,' but they are entitled to no special privileges'. They are dangerous to life and limb, interfere with traffic, block up the streets and are a nuisance generally to everybody except those who ride in them. It would be interesting to know WHY more streets are to be converted into boulevards and turned over to park commissioners. Where does the demand come from? Who wanted r