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THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION -
For 100 Years. the South's Standard Newspaper
RALPH #AcGILL, Publisher
Established Jone 14, 1243
Iseved dally except New Year's, July 4, Labor Day,
atepieine and Christmas. Second-class Postafe paid at
“2tke Auanta’ Constitution (morni d Tr
e nta nstitution (morning) an 2 atlanta
Constitution ard The Atlanta Journal (Sunday), podlished
Page 4
EUGENE PATTERSON, Editor
py Atlanta Newspapers, Inc., 10 Forsyth St, N.W.. At
tanta, Georgia 30302,
Home delivered subscription rates (including taxed);
Morning and Sunday, 1 week, 65c. Morning daily o i
week, 45¢ Subscription prices By mail on request. ool
copies: Daily, 1c; Sunday,
MONDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1967
One Bridge at a Time
Last week the Board of Aldermen approved
19 pedestrian bridges in the master campus
plan for Georgia State College and those
bridges, as a college spokesman said, “will
get 25,000 students off the city streets so they
won't be run over.”
The number of students was a projection
into the future; 10 years hence, when the
college’s enrollment is expected to more than
double.
By approving these bridges on their merit,
and shelving a proposed ordinance which
would have forbidden their construction, the
aldermen also were looking to the future. The
proposal is so restrictive that if would pre-
sent all sorts of blocks to some very progres-
sive and exciting plans to move pedestrian
and vehicular traffic more efficiently and
safely.
There must be some. safeguards, to be
sure. We can’t have pedestrian bridges across
streets and between buildings so low they
would interfere with street traffic, nor so
many of them that they would blot out the
sunshine. But neither should we preclude
them where they would add beauty, aid
Movement and improve safety.
Rather, each bridge proposal should be
judged on its merits—within very broad guide-
lines if necessary—so that we can take full
advantage of present and future architectural
and engineering knowledge.
Each proposal should be carefully consid-
ered by city planners, traffic engineers and
all others concerned. Certainly each should be
studied by the Atlanta Civic Design Commis-
sion which was specifically set up to review
all such matters and to make recommenda-
tions.
The Board of Aldermen is, and of course
will be, the final authority. But the aldermen
should not hamstring themselves by setting
up unreasonably restrictive standards.
For 100 Years. the South's Standard Newspaper
RALPH #AcGILL, Publisher
Established Jone 14, 1243
Iseved dally except New Year's, July 4, Labor Day,
atepieine and Christmas. Second-class Postafe paid at
“2tke Auanta’ Constitution (morni d Tr
e nta nstitution (morning) an 2 atlanta
Constitution ard The Atlanta Journal (Sunday), podlished
Page 4
EUGENE PATTERSON, Editor
py Atlanta Newspapers, Inc., 10 Forsyth St, N.W.. At
tanta, Georgia 30302,
Home delivered subscription rates (including taxed);
Morning and Sunday, 1 week, 65c. Morning daily o i
week, 45¢ Subscription prices By mail on request. ool
copies: Daily, 1c; Sunday,
MONDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1967
One Bridge at a Time
Last week the Board of Aldermen approved
19 pedestrian bridges in the master campus
plan for Georgia State College and those
bridges, as a college spokesman said, “will
get 25,000 students off the city streets so they
won't be run over.”
The number of students was a projection
into the future; 10 years hence, when the
college’s enrollment is expected to more than
double.
By approving these bridges on their merit,
and shelving a proposed ordinance which
would have forbidden their construction, the
aldermen also were looking to the future. The
proposal is so restrictive that if would pre-
sent all sorts of blocks to some very progres-
sive and exciting plans to move pedestrian
and vehicular traffic more efficiently and
safely.
There must be some. safeguards, to be
sure. We can’t have pedestrian bridges across
streets and between buildings so low they
would interfere with street traffic, nor so
many of them that they would blot out the
sunshine. But neither should we preclude
them where they would add beauty, aid
Movement and improve safety.
Rather, each bridge proposal should be
judged on its merits—within very broad guide-
lines if necessary—so that we can take full
advantage of present and future architectural
and engineering knowledge.
Each proposal should be carefully consid-
ered by city planners, traffic engineers and
all others concerned. Certainly each should be
studied by the Atlanta Civic Design Commis-
sion which was specifically set up to review
all such matters and to make recommenda-
tions.
The Board of Aldermen is, and of course
will be, the final authority. But the aldermen
should not hamstring themselves by setting
up unreasonably restrictive standards.