Germany and the Germans from an American Point of ViewCollier, Price
History
Germany and the Germans from an American Point of View
Collier, Price
Germany; National characteristics, German
I fancy that after an accident has taken place the literary, legal,
and hygienic details are cared for by the Berlin police as nowhere
else. In their management of the traffic they are distinctly lacking
in decision and watchfulness. On the western side of the Brandenburger
Tor there is seldom an hour, without a tangle of traffic which is
entirely unnecessary if the police knew their business. On the
Tiergarten Strasse, a rather narrow and much used thoroughfare in the
fashionable part of the town, trucks, cabs, and other vehicles are not
kept close to the curbs, often they drive along in pairs, slowing up
all the traffic, and at the east end of the street is a corner which
could easily be remedied by the building of a "refuge," and an
authoritative policeman to guard the three approaches. Not once, but
scores of times, at the very important corner of Unter den Linden and
Wilhelm Strasse I have seen the policeman talking to friends on the
curb, quite oblivious to a scramble of cabs, wagons, and motors at
cross purposes in the street. Potsdamer Platz presents a difficult
problem at all times of the day, especially when the crowds are coming
from or going toward home, but a few ropes and iron standards, and
four alert Irish policemen, would make it far plainer sailing than now
it is. It is to be remembered, too, that the traffic is a mere dribble
as compared to a torrent, when one remembers Paris, New York, and
London. In 1909 the street accidents in Paris numbered 65,870, and
there was one summons for every 77 motor taxicabs, but Paris is now
without a rival as the dirtiest, worst-paved capital in Europe, and
the home of social anarchy; a place where adventurous spirits will go
soon rather than to Africa, or to the Rocky Mountains, for excitement
in affrays with revolvers, vitriol, and chloroform.
In London, in 1909, there were 13,388 accidents. In Berlin there was a
total of 4,895 accidents in 1900; 4,797 in 1905; and 4,233 in 1910.
One hundred persons were killed in 1900; 115 in 1905; and 136 in 1910.
In this connection it is to be said, that Berlin has fewer and much
less adventurous inhabitants, very much less complicated traffic, much
broader and better streets, and far fewer problems than the older
cities. If the citizens of Berlin were anything like as capable of
taking care of themselves in the streets, as they should be, there
would be hardly any accidents at all. The new police regulation of the
traffic has been only some four or five years in existence in its more
rigid form, and perhaps neither people nor police are accustomed to
it. Even then, out of the total of 4,233 accidents in 1910, 1,876 of
them were caused by the street-railway cars. This shows of itself how
light the traffic must be, for worse driving and more awkward
pedestrians one would go far to find.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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