Show THE bGDEN'STA HSONDAY MORNING SEPTCMBfcR 9 1928: - v Am ZSM TTf NDARD-EXAMINE- R ew n tr Modern Auto Avalanche Is Forcing Our Cities to This Ingenious Twentieth Century JFfty ri if f ri If i C' s M I III System i mi v If' v "s t test THE REASON-"Automobil- e - manufacturers began to roll S 1 1 N M 111 I1I HI 11 s s 1 1 s 1 B 1 1 IIP II II 1111 1 I H 5i li II ti is SS 'Vs"ys s! SJ 1 S! Ss 9 Stop-an- d V? 0 Zero J INSIDF The Interior of th4 New Traffic Lantern Showinp the Powerful Lenses and Deflectors to Prevent "Phantom" Signals and Light in Motorists' Eyes PEED speed! Let us go swiftly trol enables an automobile on an arterial and more swiftly— with com- boulevard to move at a fixed rate of fort That cry has mounted to a speed for several miles! without slowing The mighty chorus all over the world during up at any time for cross traffic the last quarter century since automobile lights change as the machine advances manufacturers began to roll their product being timed to allow traffic moving across upon the streets first by the thousand the main street to flow by without interand then by the million fering with the fleets of cars which are Yet that very eagerness of all men for synchronized with the lights rapid transit in their own machines has Being synchronized with the lights con sists in entering the in to be of its begun danger defeating own ends "through" boulevard at a In the larger cities directors of traffic point technically fcnown have begun to tear their hair Streets as "zero" Tha light is are widened new streets are built yet the puttering procession of gasoline vehicles pours on in a sadder and madder tangle Policemen are placed at vital intersections stop-and-lights installed but In a few months the situation is worse than before Anyone who has ever taxied through the Times Square district of New York at the theatre hour or the Loop district of Chicago has a memory of vast fleets -- of autos moving at a snail's it traffic ' as reaches it There are i--s green? "Go" The car continues to the next i n t e r s e c tion Thre the light is also green changing and snuttmg oi c r o s our imaginary auto Starting T7 fcisl — cal at present During this Summer the Department of Plant and Structures under the supervision of Hon Albert Goldman commisi sioner completed and turned over to the Poce Department of New" York a system $ nf "nrn"rpR!ivp" or traffic control The idea is rather simple at bottom and it has been tried out on a small scale In New York however it is planned to put the system in operation on a large scale with variations of and improvements over the methods employed by other cities The "progressive" way of traffic con- -- sr f ttt L before g ill I 1 ji j 's' ' '- -' tJ 9 - fl' r A - y ?r--- V- v THE LIGHT THE PLAN One of the New Signals Superimposed Upon a Drawing to Illustrate How It Will Control Traffic How the "Progressive"! System Works Is Shown by Arrows and Second Indications system will be Installed in Riverside Drive Central Park West and several other New York streets It is believed that if the situation can be solved in New York it can be solved anywhere for in no other city in the world is the tangle more acute From Europe from Australia from all parts of the civilized world men have come to study American methods of han- - ' aronfocj " - s s i ' iiwiif 0 II I 1 V l s -- '''SSSisC- of entertainment-seeker- s One glance at a map of the Manhattan district will give" the reader a rough idea of what the traffic police are up against Not only must during the rush hours the accumulating human freight in score upon scores of taxicaba and private limousines have a way found fori it to TIMER their Box View of the Timing An Inside appointed playhouse but the inwith Cover Removed Showing Levers numerable individuals impatient to reach for Adjusting Time Cycles to Fit their hoteh home3 of their friends and "Practicable Speeds must be i intersections while the light movement from the side 4s s4Cs3vlAss" in New York at present equipped with These are along Ocean avenue fignals from Caton avenue to Kings highway I i Brooklyn And this is only a beginning The avenue runs north and south the sW light poles being located on the northeast and southwest corners Thus the signals M fSsSsli!:-sare on the corner distant to the approaching motorist This was decided upon because Ocean avenue is more important tsvhsss 7 than the cross streets jvs The posts are arranged in pairs the one on each northeast corner supports its lantern alone while thalj on the other side ft has a housing near its base Into which may be slipped control equipment A cable - $ joins the two lanterns to one controlling 1 motor so that at no time can the two ' lights flash contrary signals Lenses for the lights! have been specially constructed on a novel design Through CONTROLS i a cutting oh the lens and corrugations the Whole System Is Automatically Box Which This Is the from near the edge of the deflector any light Is of These at Each Intersection One There Operated entering the lens from an outside source such as rays from the sun or from autodJing traffic THe new idea In traffic reg- In the trade and amusemobile headlights are prevented from ulation has been tied out in Washington ment centers of a city' D thrown back into several as motorists' and in being Cleveland Chicago nearly always very they are eyes " An a false or "phantom" signal en short been The! other cities results have average length is 250 feet and about the Timing J lights( presented at first a couraging-is where there new After much experiment the heavy traffic The old system differs from the problem streets it i3 cross all the This was one in that all the lights flash red or at cycle was set at 90 seconds divided at each intersection in accordance green simultaneously from one end of the extremely difficult to artime with studies over a period of six days controlled street t( the other As a result range practicable Numerous charts were prepared each for motorists must halt every three or four cycles On the longer arterial a different speed rarfging from eighteen blocks Now they will be able to move to twenty five miles per hour steadily forward and it is estimated that highways a block runs from The experimenters determined upon on some-arterihighways the time re- eight hundred to a thousand 217 miles as the most desirable average quired to traverse their entire length will feet Here the "progressive" lights work best The Thus the lights are adjusted to accommobe reduced by a third automobiles with date all traffic moving at that speed up moving in one There is however difficulty are able to blocks and down Ocean avenue new' platoons steady Long this ingenious system Within another month the "progressive" have so far been essential to its success continue without a pause streets has plenty of time to pass ' -- NX C -- al CoDrrlfht I92S UUnution! i"ttur - Serrlc tne Oreat Brttiln Right Another problem which knotty "stop-and-gthese modern lamps are the right-anglis of that to improve going turn Under the usual simultaneous light arrangement the right turn is made while the red light is on — which makes it pretty hard for the pedestrian to get across No feasible method of solving this has yet been devised though it is hoped that right turns on the green light may become practicable under the new o'' e s ' S5! 1: j SSS pace with interminable halts followed by further feeble creepings The-- ridiculously inadequate streets seem to crowd in upon the miserable mechanical bug3 crawling between their The streets ought to be widened curb They cannotbe widened by so much as an inch for they already spread almost to the foundations of buildings Now comes a plan developed for the first time 'on a large scale in New York whereby this distressing condition may be solved or at least temporarily remedied-until men take to the air in such numbers that their choked arteries of surface travel may be given a chance to flow again The plan is a graphic testimonial to what human ingenuity can do when forced to the test AIL sorts of schemes from vast elevated highways to subterranean Some boulevards have been advanced of these have been absurd — aU impracti- ' 5 v-- twenty-fiv- e " The illustrations on this page show graphically how the new traffic plan will work By noting the "zero" point on th$ large diagram and then following jth miles an hour line it can be twenty-on- e eeen how the timing principle was worked out enabling cars to move steadily at a constant speed while the lights flash green one by dne instead of altogether as before Many students of the plan believe j that m it lies the most ' promising present hope of solving one of the biggest problems ion s fronting the modern Vehicles of all city kinds are being poured into the streets of the s"" world in greater) and greater numbers ppm4 observers have predicted a day not far distant when thorough! fares of world cities will become well-nig- h impassable JPerhaps the most vexing centre of metropolitan traffic con- gestion control and desired impetus —always bearing jn mind the ssssisSUssSVtHW-sss disastrousness of ac cidents — ris New York City's Times Square Here in a narrow wedge of parallel and 'transverse streets abides tumultu-oasl- y the amusement centre the bulk of the high class legitimate and "big time" vaudeville theatres that nightly and on matinee days draw their eager thousands go -- M il their product upon the streets first by the thousand then by the million" y s s TIMING UCtw SCH-DUL- SYSriM T Ziao GUI IN Mtt L TRAFFIC SIGNAL (OMO I I LOCATION AVtMUt BtU 4 131 DAUH frrEN Tmt chupch ALPgPMAPtt BtVEPtT - cotlvo oiTMAa so faoag- lAvi i sa ' ?Q fet jtL jy 4 - ?4 11— -- Avt AVt K vt wh avcn ave O P AVE KIWOHWHVW li L li Li-0---j- y: jjIoi -- 4 --- 21 J4il OJLL COHTI J L - 4 4 5- - — '! 2 — &-- - 2 5— 4 - L--A-- L : - ± --- ii- - — - L-- - J2 L - iL- - --- 21 5 - — fi -- T0"'°° ! --t- - -- — 4 —1 ---! 1 ' Street to Chart of the Record for the First Must Be Cycles Detail Great in and Registered Worked Out A Be Equipped with the Device Reterred afliaHN ! j 5 f— i2 L-- — -! L 9 L e- ed 5 4- 4 4 --l SO J2 4 7 -1- 2- O t t I IObccn Dot i3 1® 4 2 4? AVf C H i 3l 60 33 - a O wwpx" lL-2fi 4 St jo 5Q DQWCHC3TCI? AVE Sflt O CATQN SETTINGS I Uco Pot DIAL DAPfc counted upon railway termini h Forty-fiftto Street is to be Ingress had from the east from the northi (on both Broadway and Seventh Avenue) and from the south The tremendous glut of vehicular traffic some years ago made the authorities decide to limit the avenues of approach but even today riders and drivers feel acutely the "neck-of-thbottle" sensation creeping over them as they near no matter how eagerly and with what tardy chuggings and halts that area which has been described feelingly by chauffeurs as "the place you never get H out of" r area Of course in such a congested) the Goldman theory of progressive and coordinated traffic is at the moment untenable New York will for years prob- -j ably have to pay for its insatiable appe- tite for theatrical enjoyment with peevish oaths waits and natural but blocks But elsewhere where city arej more rationally spaced and there' are fewer theatres the plan will be stubborn-- 1 ly — and probably effectually — tried Out One of the best features of the newi light arrangement is its tendency tomake travel saferi Under the old plan motorists increased their speed in order to pass a given street intersection before the Now they "stop" signal was flashed in to take order a set move at must speed advantage of the lights Hurry with at-- " tendant accidents will be done away with ' to a large extent All those who drive or ride in motors-wil- l be interested to learn that at lat a' really common sense light system has been installed in New York For its success in that city will mean gradual adoption by all other towns whose traffic is congested enough for the older methods of control to be unsatisfactory J : 1 |