Evening Star Newspaper, May 23, 1926, Page 67

Q 2 _SIGNAL LIGHTS TO CAPITAL'S TRAFFIC Officials Convinced Long Experiments and Correction of Original Deficiencies. BY W. J. VOSS. . Wherein have the traffic control signal lights benefited \Wash- Ington motorists and to what extent ma his fullest co-operation? the motorist gives District traffic officials have phases of this question since the System, earl gnistic. They believe the signal system has shown positive benefit to driving conditions and they see by the motorist as the only limitation to the s Txperience with the lights on Sixteenth street. by which they v were to stand or fall in the scheme of things in \Washington, has demonstrated, according to thos them on that thoroughfare, that ment. ed as outstanding benefits thus erred on Washington motordom first, a noteworthy decrease in ac. on one of the most heavily 1 streets in the city, and sec- ondly, the possibility increasing both the speed and safety of driving on Avenue of the Presidents, Only 10 Accidents in March. e first consic 1ro! measures of protection of ht as a norm of success, =treet signal syvstem has survived a four-month trial period with creditable rdiug to accident tabula- & November, 1925, there 1ccidents on Sixteenth street. following month there were 30, eration in traffic con- * ©f which 13 caused injury to persons dnvolved. One of these ended fatally Since that time the number has de- ased steadily. January idents numhered 15; February, 12, and the March total was 10 minor accidents. There st:ll may be some faultfinders wwho refuse to he shown the merits of the “silent cop.” but figures once more ave against them. It is possible now to | to| drive from Lafayette Square Florida avenue, the signal light zone of Sixteenth street, in just about half tha time it required before the in stallation of the electric control avetem. This is demonstrated in the results of tests quoted by Lieut. Col. 1. . Moller, assistant trafiic director. Fefore the lights began blinking at , Yegular intervals on Nixteenth street \ time of the drive down that throughtare was 7 minutes from Florida avenue, The time varled from 6% minutes when traffic was thinned out to 812 minutes during the rush houre. And this timing was the best that could be done with due regard to the safety of all concerned. With repsonable care, the trip called for constant famming on of brakes and onal heart-throbs as a lagging e an was barely missed. Now the minimum time has been reduced to 31; minutes for the e re 7.000 feet, maintaining a rate ©of 22 wfles an hour, Col. Moller states that recently le started out Sixteenth street shortly before 5 p.m., when traffic is extra heavy, and made the run to Florida avenue in five minutes, Speeding Ts Hampered. An interesting fact developed In eonnection with the automatic control svstem is that the rate of speed can regulated to within two miles hour above or below the speed limit fixed. This is pointed to by Col. Moller as i s - tinn of safety. since reckiess speeding on electrically controlled streets is not only made impossible if the lights are obeved, but hinders rather than helps one to get through the zone expeditiously Timing of the Sixteenth street lights was for the most part the cause the averags of the widespread dissatisfaction with | schich they met at fir he intervals were long enough to cause noticeable delays and much chafing on the part of the motorist who was trying to hurry along. Shortening of the in- tervals, however, has reduced objec. tion to a minimum. When first installed, the lights *vere varied uniformly over the en- tire street, This was another cause for many delays for the motorists Avhn started into the controlled zone ® short while after the lights had changed. “ignal lights now are changed on teenth street accord- ing to a block system. An imaginary auto ride for a few Blocks under conditions existing on this drawing may serve to fllustrate the advantage of the present block svstem. As he turns from H street ynto Sixteentl sireef. the north_and AN PRICE Only such a vast production as 40,000,000 spark lugs a year could uild Champion superior qualityat such low prices as 60 and 75 cents. Champion — o EneBes T5e CHAMPION Dependable for Every Engine ,"‘l Toledo, Ohio " ] in January. After four months of trial, experimen- tation. change of timing. theoretical computation and practical testing of traffic reaction, their conclusions are decidedly optj- THE SUNDAY BTAR, WASHINGTON, D OTORS and A BOON of Their Merits After they be really helpful if been sceking the answer to both introduction of the signal-control the degre of co-operation given stem’s usefulnes e who have studied and observed there has been marked improve- I south lights at 1 and K streets are een, beckoning him to continue st these streets. At the same time traffic on 1 and K streets is halted by red lights showing east- ward and westward. Lights Change During Trip. When I. street is reached, if the motorist has been proceeding judi- the light facing southward ifted to amber and, within five seconds, to green.” At the same time, the signal at M street has changed, as has that at Scott Circle. There, the northbound motorist takes the roadway inside the 'safety island and when he reaches the end of this concrete segment he finds the light at the Sixteenth street intersection has changed to green and he proceeds on his way. The signals at P and Q streets are showing red as | leaves the circle, but by L first intersection is reached the shift to green at both streets has been made. Timing of the electric control sys- tem has been the subject of exacting study by the traffic director’s office. During its period of trial, constant experimentation was made and con- clusions were reached only after ac- tual driving tests. As pointed out by Col. Moller, the system cannot be operated successfully after mere cal- culations on paper. The test comes when conclusions are put into prac- tice. Modifications planned by traffic of- ficlals were checked in actual opera- tion, ually after midnight, when traffic was light. Daylight counts of vehicles at various intersections also have been taken as indications of | proper timing of the electric signals. First Plan Undesirable. | The first intervals were one minute for crosstown traffic and a minute land a half for trafic on Sixteenth | street. The longer interval, naturally, would seem more appropriate for the north and south movement, but checks at intersections showed the crosstown flow uneven and heavier at certain crossings than on Sixteenth street. Within 10 minutes, for ex- ample, 97 vehicles were counted cross- ing at K street, while only 72 vehicles were clocked at the same time moving on Sixteenth street. At intersections where crosstown | was heavier than that on Sixteenth street, delays were occasioned by the longer interval for north and south traffic. Cars piled up until they stretched a block in either direction. The block plan of timing was put into operation and traffic officials im- mediately found improvement. The green and red lights were changed to show for 35 seconds in either direc- tion with a five-second lighting of the ;.’unhfl‘ caution signal. Shortening of | the time prevented piling up of traffic [to any great degree even during the rush hours. Timing now provides for 45.second intervals from 8 a.m. to 8:15 a.m, and from 4 to 6 p.m. on week days and 40-second Intervals from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sundays. During the remainder of the day the signals change every 35 seconds. Amber “caution” signals are 5 seconds in duration. Foresight Is Needed. Motorists who want to avold delays —and who does not?—can succeed in o dolng by exercising a little fore- sight. The rate of motion of a. car traveling at 22 miles an hour is ap- proximately 33 feet a second. It the motorist will get a rough notion of 165 feet and on approaching an intersec- | tlon where the light has just changed to amber will see to it that he keeps p—— i ) . i WL Reduction of Traffic by 16th Street Lights Contradicted by Count Is traffic moving off Sixteent street to Fifteenth and Seven- teenth streets? Opponents of the electric sig- nal lights contend that such a change has taken place, with the drift from Sixteenth street growing apace. An actual count completed recently by the traffic director's office, however, does not show the Avenue of the Presidents losing in popularity. The count made at § street between am. and 10 p.m. 1t indicated a decrease of trafic volume on all three thoroughfares over the number of vehicles checked a year age The decrease was least, how- ever, on Sixteenth street. There were approximately 250 less vehicles counted on Six- teenth street than at the same time last year. The decrease on Fifteenth street was 500 and on Seventeenth street the number of vehicles was 650 less than a year ago. just that distance behind the crossing o delay will result. The next change will take place as the next street is reached. And the yellow light, by the is not a “stop” signal but merely a direction_to clear the intersection. Halted traffic should not move while it is showing, but cars that already are in the intersection should, of course, keep moving. For unlformity, acceleration of traffic movement, possibility of accu- rate and positive control both of the speed and movement of vehicles, the electric signal light system has been demonstrated as a definite success in ‘Washington, traffic officials of the Na- tional Capital belleve. They are mot surprised that it has fitted into the traffic control scheme. The number of cities using it now are legion, and the communitty laying claim to ap- preciate progre: without having adopted the rignal light is the excep- tion rather than the rule. Success Up to Drivers. Success of the electric signals is en- tirelr up to the rank and file of mo- torists. The more unreserved is their degree of co-operation, the more ad- vantageous can be the timing and the speed permitted. This is the hint given the motorist by the traffic office. One practice, which officlals declare must be corrected before the signal system operates to even greater ad- vantage, is driving jauntily along con- slderably helow the speed limit in the center of the street through the light- controlled zone. This practice, they point out, gives rise to repeated vio- Jation of the trafic regulations and danger to the lives of other motorists. The man who wants to pass in a hurry, having become impatient with the funereal gait, will go by either on the right, which is absolutely contrary to regulation, or he will risk collision by passing on the left and having to do it. beyond the center of the road- way. Motorists must keep closer to the right-hand curb if the system is to be helpful. 5 The “silent cop,” like his animate prototype. is an amlable and helpful chap if given at least reasonable co- operation. Try it with the signal system on that next ride on Sixteenth street and test. the accuracy of the ad- vice for achieving more satisfactory motoring condition of the world are now literally ded like a yacht, on suspen soft, flexible cushions of yielding lignid ? The yielding action of glycerine forced through check-valves in proportion to the roughness of the road, drowns all shock and movement as petiectly as the water that flosts the yacht. The recoil is regandless of zoad.condition and speed of travel. ride in ioead i Buffalo, NewYork ‘The Honde Engineering Co., 3 The Clark Houdaille Co. 1625 You Street Northwest. Thone Potomae 214 TRAFFIC CONTROL BY SIGNALS DURING FIRES 1S COMPLICATED Police Officers at Headquarters Often Replace Auto- matic Switch When Master Clock Falls Down on Job. BY F. J. CARMODY. Washington motorists probably haven't the slightest idea what it would mean to them if Messrs. R. I.. Eubanks and W. D. Cousins ever decided that the tropical custom of an afternoon siesta was just the right antidote for a hot afternoon in the National Capital. Of course, it is casy to justify columns that have been written about the cit played in their operation by Messrs. Still, it isn't necessary to wait until one of them goes to sieep to tell just who they are in the gasoline scheme of things locally. They are. to be brief, the duo that presides at the central control box tirely overlooked. of the signal-light system. Primarily, their duty is to see that traffic on Sixteenth street and Massa- chusetts avenue sees red while the Fire Department is dashing up or across one of the signallighted thor- oughfare: If one thinks this simply is a mat- ter of throwing a switch one is quick 1y corrected by looking at the charts that hang on the wall of engine house No. 1, where Officers Eubanks and Cousins work, eight hours each, daily. At first glance one might take the charts to be graphs illustrating the loop-the-loops of the French franc or the before and during process of a man applying a hair restorative. They are made quickly compre- | hensible by Officer Cousins, who plains that they merely are the rec- ords of each engine and truck com- pany in the city that has to cross one of the thoroughfares boasting of signal lights and the time that is to be allowed each for this achievement. Allows Time for Engines. In other words, it means that when an alarm comes in the officer in charge of the control box must know which company or companies will re- spond, how long it will take the en- gine or truck to reach the boulevard and how long the lights must remain on red to assure a clear highway, Sounds like a neat problem for Euclid or the famous geometry brothers, Plane and Solid. Officers Eubanks and Cousins, however, have solved it successfully. The way a company is going has a great deal to do with making the mat- ter still_more complicated. For in- stance, No. 1 bound in one direction is | entitled to only 30 seconds of red light to get away from Sixteenth street. In another, it runs about 4 minutes. The same applies to many others. Some companies are allowed red lights for only 3 seconds. A gen- eral alarm has all the lights showing red for 5 minutes or, if necessary, longer. Thus far it doesn't seem to have been necessary to keep all traffic on these streets at a standstill for a greater period. ‘That is the main part of the respon- this lack of realization. Of all the s traffic lights, the part Eubanks and Cousins has been en sibility of the two police officers who have charge of the silent cdps. Another function. one that doesn't happen often, is that of taking the place of the automatic mechanism should it automatically stop. The “automatic” part of the lights has been known to stop several times when the lights themselves did not. In such cases either Eubanks or Cousins, watch in one hand, switch in the other, kept traffic moving safe- 1y and sedately—and all the credit was going to the big electric clock that is supposed to perform this vital duty. To take none of the honor that they do not merit, Officers FEubanks and Cousins admit that the clock seldom strikes. To get back to where this started, the officers aren’t the kind who ever would go to sleep at the switch, but much might happen if they did. MARYLAND HIGHWAY OILING WORK RUSHED Work Will Be Completed Prior to July 1, Mackall Announces. 375 Miles to Be Done. Oiling of Maryland State roads will be completed prior to July 1, John N. Mackall, chairman of the State Roads Commission, announces Good weather has enabled the com- mission’s oiling forces to advance the work a week earlier than sched- uled. A total of 375 miles of macadam or gravel roads will be oiled this Spring, the work being finished bhefore the start of the active touring season. Mr. Mackall announced that oiling apparatus now is working on a num- ber of roads. Motorists were notified that the following roads are now be- ing treated: Solomons Island road from South stamina Mile after mile after mile after mile, a Flint holds l anyspeed youlike | with refreshing comfort. A Demonstration Will Convince You FeIVI N T Pot. 1673 1605 14th St. N.W. ¢, WAY 23, 1926—PART 3. - KEY . R-indicatesRed G-indicates Green 4 Arrowindicates directiongignal™ i?lashesr‘9 'YOUR CAR ' and MINE i A Weekly Department of Heips fulness, Information and En- tertainment for Motor Car Owners. By WILLIAM"ULLMAN, It's easier to outtalk the trafic-cop than to talk him out of ft. — Speeding and Progress, An, unrecorded genius has said. ‘It's"one v.h\ng to ““fi‘ly end egother to get somewhere Q! o There is a lot of plain trutly&nghi for automobile owners end driver Many speed, but Yew gnako @ny gna- t rogress. ’l'hixv is largelv because speeding {sn't & well rounded qut process, as generally handled, It ks suitable thinking., Sometimes the driver who has the speediest wits drives slower. but he gets to his destination sooner than the man who thinks of s only in terms of the speedometer dial. Hurrying in the city requires a high type of planning and call§ for clear thinking at every turn of the wheel. There are soms drivers who practice this and whose success gwith the idea is so promounced they gan sit at the wheel a few moments be- fore starting and get to their destina- tions before the gnam who starty-off with a push. Quick thinking' it} suggesf the {deaof planning one’s ‘way through traffic, or perhaps reveal 3 way to avoid congestion alfogethes, Drivers who think befors they act have far less difficulty fiding parying spaces. And to round out the idesy thev endeaver at all timed to think r than the epeedometer so- thaf gheyv %{are able to keep abreast of ths idea ST. LAFAYETTE SQUARE Left: Policeman R. L. Eubanks at the central control box of the traffic light system located in No. 1 Right: Engine House. i the block system now employed in controlling t: Diagram showin, traffic on Sixteenth street, Ifinltr-un: the alternation of the red and green signals in zones of two blocks each. River to Harwood in Anne Arundel County: Leonardtown road to Mor- ganza in St, Marys County, and the Camp Spring road to Upper Marl- bore in Prince Georges County; Royal Oak road in Wicomico County and roads near Snow Hill, Girdletree and Stockton: roads in the vicinity of ‘Federalsburg. Easton and Center- ville, and in Carroll County between Morgans and Eldershurg. * The roads next to be ciled are Seventh street pike from Washington to Olney: roads through Kensington and Chevy Chase and from Glen- mont 1o Lavhill: roads between Churchill and Chestertown and from Sudlersville to Dudleys Corner in Queen Anne County and from Cecil- ton to Warwick, and between Ches- apeake City and Elkton in Cecil County. NEW JERSEY DOUBLING WIDTH OF RESORT PIKE ‘Widening of one side of the White Horse pike, which carries the bulk of traffic across New Jersey to Atlantic City and nearby resorts, is scheduled for completion early this Summer. Now 20 feet in width, this pike grad- ually is being widened to 40 feet over its entire length, from Camden to At- lantic City. First, it will be widened to 30 feet by adding 10 feet to the south side. Ultimately, another 10 feet will be added to the north side of the roadway. It is planned to have the 30-foot highway ready for the scheduled opening of the new Phila- delphia-Camden bridge on no motor transportation s ever any more efficient than it safety. The fastest cars are being driven by the people witls the speediest think- ing apparatuse Night Distance Less. Why i= it that the mileage from sne city 1o another is often less at night than during the day? Or is this one of the interesting things in motoring that has escaped attention? It i5 a fact that over a hundred-mile stretch mileage it apt to vary as much as several miles from day to night. Perhaps somse clus to this situ- ation is had when one considers the fact that a motor cvcls will cut down the runnipg distance between distant points as much- as 10 or 15 miles, it the traveling is dons at night. It is cutting corners and not having o pase other cars that cuts the mile. age and that marks the difference be- tween day and night distance, When traffic is heavy the driver keeps to the outer edge on every curve, going many feet out of his way many times every mile. At night he cuts off the outer ‘edges of travel and actually shortens the distance from one point to another, Touring More Tactfully. To the native, the tourist always seems to be exceeding the speed limit. even if he may be running at the com monly accepted pace. It is a psycho logical condition. Tourists are sup posed to be in a hurry. “There goes a. man from: > % the native, noting the strange license tag. “Ha'a got a long way to go.” The assump- tion follows thai the tourist is in a big_hur ‘When touring. it is well ta bear this in mind as a protection against biased testimony in event of a cellision or other accident. Public opinfon i« against the tourist when he is in trou ble. It pays to drive considerately and. if possible. give the impression that one is not in a hurry. Made in Mentality. Flying automobiles? use water as fuel? gears? How many motorists question the reasonableness of such developments” Do they seem too fanciful? Are they beyond the realm of possibility? Motor car fans of a philosophical turn of mind say it is all quite possi ble. Just a matter of time hefore cars (Continued on enth Pags.) Engines that Self-steering ANNOUNCING The Opening of Our New. Salesroom J. CALVIN STUART Monday and Tuesday, May Twenty-Fourth and Twenty- Fifth, with a display in,open and closed models of -~ Whllyps-Knight and#Overland w RinolVlotoriCurs STUART MoOTOR Co.. ' Phone Potomac 6045 1726-Connecticut Ave. 8 A M. to-10-P.M.