Traffic control

“ When one considers how difficult to control, particularly amid crowded traffic, a horse-drawn vehicle is, and how very easy it is to control an up-to-date automobile, one cannot but feel that a little more consideration should be shown the automobilist by those in authority.
The road obstructions, slow-going traffic which will not get out of one's way, carts left unattended and the like, make most of the real and fancied dangers which are laid to the door of the very mobile motor-car. ”

“ But at the same time every resource of traffic engineering and traffic control will be necessary in the urgent task of making more efficient and safer use of the road space available. Traffic signs are an important instrument in this process and to be effective they must be modernised to accord with the changed conditions in which they operate. ”

“ Traffic control measures during heavy traffic hours For Extreme Areas, each implementation plan revision under this subsection may contain provisions establishing traffic control measures applicable during heavy traffic hours to reduce the use of high polluting vehicles or heavy-duty vehicles, notwithstanding any other provision of law. ”

“ Where separation of grades at highway intersections is not feasible, and at all points where vehicles may be expected to cross, enter, or leave the interregional highway, the design shall be such as to insure a high degree of safety in crossing, entering or leaving it, without installation of traffic control signals, which shall in no case be employed. ”

“ Proper regulation and control of traffic are accordingly as essential to a GOOD highway system as are proper plans for its building and the use of proper materials in its construction.
Engineers and builders are the men behind the line in the battle for good roads. Maintenance forces and traffic officers are the men on the firing line. The maintenance engineers must see that roads once built are maintained in adequate condition for travel. Traffic officers must see that travel uses these roads properly. ”

“ For many years, highway professionals have known that highway safety could best be achieved by minimizing traffic turbulence and speed variance. Cooperative research by the Bureau of Public Roads and several State highway departments in the late 1950’s and 1960’s verified these views. Both two- and four- lane main rural highways without control of access, as well as urban and rural freeways, exhibited the lowest accident involvement rate for vehicles operating near the average speed for all traffic. For vehicles traveling at both lower and higher speeds, the involvement rate increased sharply. ”

“ The point before us seems to me well within the legislative power. We all know what serious problems the automobile has introduced. The difficulties of keeping the streets reasonably clear for travel and for traffic are very great. If a State speaking through its Legislature should think that, in order to make its highways most useful, the business traffic upon them must be controlled, I suppose that no one would doubt that it constitutionally could, as, I presume, most States or cities do, exercise some such control. ”

“ Traffic Problem.—One of the most serious administrative problems met with in London is that of locomotion, especially as regards the regulation of traffic in the principal thoroughfares and at the busiest crossings. The police have powers of control over vehicles and exercise them admirably; their work in this respect is a constant source of wonder to foreign visitors. But this control does not meet the problem of actually lessening the number of vehicles in the main arteries of traffic. ”

“ At most crossings, however, pedestrians are at present expected to judge for themselves when it is safe to cross by keeping their eye on the traffic. At the simpler junctions pedestrians are usually able to see at least one signal appropriate to each traffic phase to help them in judging the traffic situation. But where complex methods of control are employed, signals can be confusing or misleading and it is safer to judge mainly by watching the traffic. ”

“ Article 30 Where roads are so damaged as to cave in, become bumpy or ruined by water, or bulge out, or where such traffic facilities as traffic signal lights, traffic signs and traffic line markings are damaged or disappeared, the maintenance or control department for road and traffic facilities shall put up warning signs, and make repairs without delay. ”

“ In the construction of future belt lines and bypasses control of lateral access and separation from the grade of cross highways at intersections always should be provided. Only by so doing can the bypasses be preserved for their proper function of serving through traffic. So protected, the cities can expand beyond the circuit routes provided without interfering with the discharge of the duty of such routes. ”

“ From vehicles one passes by a natural transition to those who were charged with the regulation of traffic, though its masterly control by the police had not yet been developed to the point at which it has frequently elicited the admiration of foreign visitors. ”

“ In the method of control known as the flexible progressive system the signals at a number of adjacent junctions can be co-ordinated in such a way that traffic may proceed at a uniform speed along the main thoroughfare without being held up at each successive intersection, while at the same time frequent opportunities are given for cross traffic to proceed. ”

“ At certain types of junctions where there is two-phase control, such as T junctions, staggered crossroads and junctions with one-way streets, we think that additional signals should more frequently be installed to ensure that pedestrians can see not only the signals controlling the traffic stream they are about to cross but also those for traffic flowing at right angles. ”

“ Experience abroad suggests that these lane control signals should be repeated at intervals of not more than 300 yards and that they should not be placed where they can be confused with signals controlling intersections.
249. There is a serious danger that traffic signals in urban areas may fail to be seen because they become confused with the background lights of shops and advertisements. Powers already exist to prevent such lights being placed where they conflict seriously with the efficiency of traffic signals. ”

“ Now, therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States, under and by virtue of the powers vested in me by the foregoing resolutions and statute, and by virtue of all other powers thereto me enabling, do hereby, through Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War, take possession and assume control at 12 o'clock noon on the twenty-eighth day of December, 1917, of each and every system of transportation and the appurtenances thereof located wholly or in part within the boundaries of the continental United States and consisting of railroads, and owned or controlled systems of coastwise and inland transportation, engaged in general transportation, whether operated by steam or by electric power, including also terminals, terminal companies and terminal associations, sleeping and parlor cars, private cars and private car lines, elevators, warehouses, telegraph and telephone lines and all other equipment and appurtenances commonly used upon or operated as a part of such rail or combined rail and water systems of transportation, to the end that such systems of transportation be utilized for the transfer and transportation of troops, war material and equipment to the exclusion so far as may be necessary of all other traffic thereon, and that so far as such exclusive use be not necessary or desirable, such systems of transportation be operated and utilized in the performance of such other services as the national interest 140may require and of the usual and ordinary business and duties of common carriers. ”

“ There is ample support for a legislative determination that the peculiar character of this traffic involves a special type of use of the highways, with enhanced wear and tear on the roads and augmented hazards to other traffic, which imposes on the state a heavier financial burden for highway maintenance and policing than do other types of motor car traffic. ”

“ In our view a great deal more could be done by the use of carriageway markings to increase safety at junctions not controlled by traffic signals or police and to remove doubt from the minds of drivers and consequently to make such junctions safer. ”

“ We believe that an effective step which could be taken to reduce these casualties would be to ensure that at the great majority of junctions, and certainly at those junctions where serious danger exists, the minor road is distinguished from the major so that drivers on the minor road are given a clear indication that they should give way to major road traffic. ”

“ If a vehicle is illegally parked, creating a hazard or otherwise impeding the
movement of traffic, the traffic police officer has the authority to tow such
vehicle at the expense of the vehicle’s owner. ”

“ In this country where the road pattern is so complicated, we think it would assist travellers in finding their way between important towns if a system of Primary routes other than motorways was established, the roads in which would be clearly distinguished by having directional signs of a particular colour. Moreover, we foresee that this distinction might eventually enable a code of improved driver conduct, aimed at improving traffic flow and safety, to be applied generally to these Primary routes. ”

“ Apart from regulations of interstate motor traffic having commercial aims and involving routes, schedules, rates and the like, any regulation on a national scale, whatever its extent, has an intimate and vital relation to the conservation of highways which belong to the states, and to their safe and convenient use by the general public in both interstate and intrastate traffic. ”

“ And with all the finesse of their work the traffic moves like molasses. Long double and triple files of touring cars and limousines, the combined cost of which would render statistics such as would gladden the heart of a Sunday editor, make their way up and down the great street tediously. If a man is in a hurry he has no business even to essay the Avenue. And occasionally the whole tangle is double-tangled. The shriek of a fire-engine up a side street or the clang of an ambulance demanding a clear right-of-way makes the traffic question no easier. ”

“ Obviously, it is not possible by any limited highway system, whatever the relative importance of its constituent routes, to serve all the needs of the Nation’s traffic. Nor is it reasonable to assume that in and near the cities the routes included in such a limited system will if improved, provide a complete solution to the serious problem of city traffic congestion. ”

“ I was personally in favour of limiting the speed to twenty-five miles an hour in the open and ten miles through towns and villages; but as all the other members of the Commission felt that in the open country we should rely upon the powers of the present Highway Act, which makes it a serious offence to drive at a speed causing danger to the public, and were in favour of a no-speed limit, [Pg 214] except through villages, I gave way so that our report might be a unanimous report. We made a long list of recommendations for the better regulation of motor traffic. ”

“ Article 29 Roads, parking lots and road supporting facilities shall be planned, designed and constructed in conformity with the requirements of road traffic safety and unimpeded flow of traffic, and shall be readjusted in a timely manner to meet traffic needs. ”

“ Such space shall also be sufficient to permit vehicles turning left from the interregional highway to halt if necessary at the center of the intersection before completing the turning maneuver and to permit through traffic to pass such halted vehicles in safety. ”

“ Trucks, delivery wagons, ice-wagons, etc., frequently stop back of the line of parked automobiles in the street restricting the way and causing all passing vehicles to go over to the wrong side of the street thus congesting traffic and furnishing a source of danger. ”

“ But whether a road should have four or six or eight lanes, or there should be dividers, or circles or jughandles for turns, or traffic lights, or traffic policemen, or a speed limit of 50 or 60 miles per hour -- such matters involve discretion and revenue and are committed to the judgment of the legislative and executive branches. ”

“ May the city's right to limit the number of vehicles, and to prohibit stops to load or unload passengers, be exercised in such a way as to allocate streets on which motor traffic is more profitable exclusively to the local lines and to allocate streets on which the traffic is less profitable to the lines engaged wholly, or partly, in interstate commerce? ”

“ The frequency of street intersections is the cause of excessive stops and starts in cities. Every intersection also introduces substantial elements of delay and congestion.
If the permissible speed of moving traffic is 35 miles per hour, a halt of only half a minute at a traffic light consumes time in which each halted vehicle, but for the stop, would have advanced nearly 4 average city blocks. ”

“ In establishing one-way streets attempts are usually made to avoid left-hand turns whenever possible. The figures on pp. 424 and 426 show sketch plans for rotary service. When there are street-car tracks or other local obstructions slight changes may have to be made. Note only two full passing places for vehicles, A, and as only a part of the traffic will want to cross congestion and danger are largely eliminated. There may be one, two, or more lines of traffic at B; depending on the width of the street. ”