The evening world. Newspaper, June 21, 1922, Page 24

aa " ‘ en wraate see - =- THE EVENING WORLD, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 1922, LOS ae What is the’Safe.Modest, ® Somos ry ewe eee 14% inch “hobble skirt car” step — | Open Car Running Boards, —' 20 Inches From Ground, __. Stir Women to Protest- Even Lowest, in ‘Hobble Skirt’ Cars, Twice Height of Stair Steps in Homes | | stretch to the running board of | A on ‘open trolley car and My snother to reach the ty 1982 (ew Fork World) Coprrieht am Tork, Pyening side doors and the step, which ts flush RVEN to the most casual 1 Thi A pall ac 4, with. 10%: This step is, on an average, fourteen and a quarter inches from the street level. This means that to make it the passenger must do what with the side of the vehicle, obviously out doubt, there are many who are not merely casual in a matter of this kind— it is apparent many times every day that the designers of steps for the street cars and buses which ply New York's streets failed completely to take two things into account—the skirts of women and the demands of modesty, The steps, os at present constructed, are pretty rough on both. Of dburse the designers or the sub- sequent operators of the cars may way that they had no idea women were going to wear any such short and skimpy skirts as now adori them. But the answer to that is that the steps are held to be undesirable from @ hygienic standpoint as well. There's no doubt that persons who are infirm, who are crippled in any way, find it extremely dificult to negotiate the steps. Fer some, doubtless, the street cars are utterly impossible, They could no more get into them than Pt hishest 1414 l= Twenty years ago trolley car nin- The hobble skirt, which imme- ‘The “flapper” of to-day wears « The newer skirt now coming incnes —— ning boards held none but physi- diately preceded the “hobble-skirt skirt that is from 60 to 70 inches into vogue among the morg con- cal terrors for the modest woman _car,"’ was from 45 to 54incheswide wideandendsfrom 14 to 15inches servative women is from 60 inches whose skirt touched the ground and came within 4 of, 5 inches above the ground—sometimes at to 3 yards wide, ending 6 inches and was thre: yards wide. of the ground. the knee, above the ground, they could leap over the mooh. “ There is another way than that of looking at women getting into or alighting from these public vehicles to realize the task that confronts them when they do so. That is by comparing what they have to do with what confronts one im essaying the ordinary staircase, In the average house the height of @ step is rarely more than seven and a half inches. low, look at the height of car eps and don’t wonder at the photo- graphs on this page. Don't be amazed—because, from fami:!arity, you're probably not—at the silk stocking display, nor yet at the evi- dent gymnastic performance’ some women have to do to get aboard or off of cars, Just compare the fig- tures, remembering the aforesaid seven “and a half inches of rise to ordinary steps. First, as to the so-called “hobble- Ouirt” car, This is the with the New Yor k> “Buses com with: 3.15% step — — ~ is equal to taking ordinary steps two at a time. Next comes the kind known as the rear-entrance-front-exit car. This type Is equipped with two steps, and careful measurement of them has shown that the step from the street to the first step is up twelve and a half inches, the second, up fourteen and a quarter inches. Both these steps are many inches higher than the house step. The third type {s the one almost universal at this time of year—the open car with the running board. These provide the most severe test of all to temper and agility. That they make modesty a practical im- possibility ts just another count against them. From the street to the level of the running board the dis- tance ranges from nineteen and one- half to twenty and thri ighths inches! The distance thence to the floor of the car is almost as great. In other words, » person going up- stairs three steps at a time ts called wpon for little more exertion than in negotiating the running board of these summer cars. In the case of the other form of public vehicle, the bus, the measure- ment proved that the step of the old style bus Is fifteen inches from the street and the new style fifteen and three-quarters, If the reader has borne in mind the seven and one-half inch step, the comparison will probably prove startling. It will explain much that he sees every day in the streets and perhaps cause him a little sympathy for the women who have to ride in cars and buses As for the car step in its hygienic aspect, there is little enough to be sald, When {t demands of a woman that #he alight in safety from such a height it is asking even more than tt dogs when she boards the car. To ate, pions iw next to impossible; « jump to the street 1s nearly always necessary. Dr, Fran J. Monaghan, at present Acting Commissioner of Health, said to-day: “The steps of cars in thie city. save those of the so-called gondola cars, (referred to in this article as “hobble- skirt” cars) are all too high, We have received numerous protests against them, both from women and Physicians and the welfare of the people demands lower steps. There was, perhaps, more danger to women in the days when they wore hobble- skirts, because these restricted their movements very much, But even now there js danger to women in getting on or off the cars, “It has been suggested by the car companies that if the step were low~ ered tt would make the second step higher, and if @ third stop Were added it would extend too far beyond the car. That may be all true enough, but the fact remains that it would be P| better physically for every one if the that the latter had made repeated steps could be made lower and easier efforts to get rid of the running- of mounting.’”* board cars, adding that, unfortunate- However, the women of Brooklyn are 1» ™Many of the companies owned up in arms now against the steps of 1a™se numbers of them in fairly ser- the cars in theip borough, ‘They've Viceable condition and it wasn't fel taken the fight to the Transit Com- uite just to ask the companies to mission and are apparently deter- #crap them and get new one. mined to see the matter through. The Counsel to one of the companies commission gave a hearing recently to declared that it would be impossible @ delegation of the League of Women to lower the steps, and that an at- Voters of the 4th Assembly of Brook- te™Pt to mix in cars of the hobbles lyn, headed by Mrs, Elizabeth Alex- S¥irt type would cut down seating, as ander, She, without any hesitation the open cars have more seats than whatever, described the running the closed ones, boards of the Brooklyn trolley cars “It's a question of whether yo as altogether too high and as wont seats or low running boards," decent, hazardous and annoying. he said, resolution adopted by the women “We want both," Mrs. Alexande voters and presented to the commis- promptly replied. sion added to the description the characterization “injurious to the lifo, health and limb of women and chil- dren,” So the women are in the battl now and if they persist they wil probably provide an answer to the yet unanswered question: ‘What ts The women were told by Secretary the safe and modest height for @ James B, Walker of the commission, trolley step?’