MOTOR CLUB officials affiliated with the American Automobile Association have frequently voiced, says President Thomas P. Henry, that careless parking practices on the part of individual drivers are important contributing factors to the congestion of which so much complaint is made.

When motorists complain, it is pointed out, against prevailing conditions it gives public officials an opportunity to retort that they fail to take advantage of the space offered for parking purposes.

“It may require a slightly greater effort on the part of the individual driver to place his car in the line in such a way that it will take up a minimum of space, but such an expense of energy is more than justified,” says Mr. Henry. “Club surveys indicate that it is in the two simplest forms of parking that the chief waste is to be found.

“Parking at an agle, either 45 or 90 degrees, is a simple driving accomplishment. Every one who can drive a car can put it into such a parking space without difficulty. Angle parking represents a contribution of traffic authorities toward the solution of the general problem, for it permits a greater number of cars along a given curb line. This is nullified if the individual drivers leave an excessive amount of space between their cars and the ones next to them.

“Fourteen inches is more than an adequate space between machines so parked. Yet one sees motorists taking two feet, three feet and even more. The aggregate result is a tremendous waste of vitally needed space.

“Parallel parking, the most difficult variety, does not present so great a proportionate waste, because, in spite of the fact that it is scarcely the thing to do, the motorist who wishes to move another's car so parked usually can do so. When a car is parked at an angle it cannot be moved.”