Traffic

“ People traverse it, not with the object of arriving at any particular destination, but for the delight of the road itself, of the joy it gives to the eye and to the imagination. Its only traffic is what the transport agent would call “holiday traffic”; for when the idle season ends the highway is deserted. In earlier days there would rumble along the road the carriage and four of the traveller of great means; then came the humbler vehicle hired from the town; then the sleek motor; and finally, as a sign of democratic progress, the char-à-banc, the omnibus, and the motor-brake. ”

“ The driving is eccentric, not to say bad, but there is the traffic—more than unsophisticated eyes have beheld for a certain number of years. It means business, it means money-making, it means crowded and hurrying life, and it gets into the blood and makes it move. ”

“ Many people living at the present time, who have grown up amidst the exceptional and possibly very transient characteristics of this time, will be disposed to regard the traffic in the streets of our great cities as a part of the natural order of things, and as unavoidable as the throng upon the pavement. But indeed the presence of all the chief constituents of this vehicular torrent—the cabs and hansoms, the vans, the omnibuses—everything indeed except the few private carriages—are as novel, as distinctively things of the nineteenth century, as the railway train and the needle telegraph. ”

“ Each day one feels that the pressure of commerce and traffic grew, grew insensibly monstrous, and first this man made a wharf and that erected a crane, and then this company set to work and then that, and so they jostled together to make this unassimilable enormity of traffic. ”

“ The fact of intercourse and traffic, again, embraces all the means, instruments, and places by and in which intercourse and traffic are carried on, and, further still, comprehends the act of carrying them on at these places, and by and with these means. The subject-matter of intercourse or traffic may be either things, goods, chattels, merchandise, or persons. ”

“ When one observes the countless impediments that embarrass the movement of twentieth-century traffic through the eighteenth century streets of some eastern cities one wonders how long it will be, with the assured further increase in traffic, before complete congestion will result. ”

“ And as they drew near a great green square resembling a public park, in the very heart of the business section, the traffic became so dense and slow-moving that the young fellow was compelled to give all his attention to his driving and to crawl, start, stop continually. ”

“ The roar of traffic sounds unceasingly in her streets, the city limits press outward in all directions into the unoccupied territory near by, and the present prosperity and future magnitude of the place seem already assured. ”

“ To simplify the matter somewhat, the different classes of traffic to which roads are subjected may be divided into five groups, which may be called city, urban, suburban, highway, and country road traffic, respectively. City traffic is a traffic so great that no macadam road can withstand it, and is such as exists on the business streets of large cities. ”

“ Development of Traffic.—The character and extent of the highway improvement needed in any locality is dependent entirely on the demands of traffic. In sparsely settled areas, particularly those that are semi-arid or arid, the amount of traffic on local roads is likely to be small and the unimproved trails or natural roads adequate. ”

“ That portion of the traffic from each of the roads that is bound to or from the center of the city is best served, if it is a considerable movement, by the transcity connecting routes and expressways previously described. These same kinds of facilities also most directly serve the needs of traffic between each city-entering highway and points in or beyond the city that lie approximately diametrically opposite its point of entrance. ”

“ With considerable traffic it may be necessary to divide up the work, giving one set of observers the in-traffic and another the out-traffic, one man to observe passenger automobiles another trucks and delivery wagons, or one man to jack up and weigh front wheels and another rear. System will result in more accurate results, and in less loss of time for the drivers, and less congestion of traffic. ”

“ The traffic with which we are concerned does not move on through bills of lading, but the movement is, nevertheless, from points of origin to a foreign or coastal destination, or vice versa, and is therefore essentially through transportation. ”

“ The principal function of such a route is the distribution of traffic approaching the city on any highway, either to the other highways to which it may need to transfer or to points on the circumference of the city nearest the urban section of its ultimate destination, and the distribution of outbound traffic in a reciprocal manner. ”

“ The effect of the traffic thus tabulated, arranged, and reduced to ton yards per annum, can be ascertained upon any roadway, and Mr. Deacon has given the results of his observations in a valuable paper on the subject of street carriage pavements which he read before the Institution of Civil Engineers. [7]
Sir John MacNeill has estimated that 80 per cent. of the total wear of a road is due to traffic, the remaining 20 per cent. being due to atmospheric causes. Of this 80 per cent. 60 per cent. he considers is due to the action of horses’ hoofs where the traffic is fast, and 44·5 per cent. ”

“ In planning improvements of highway systems, it is recognized that one or more of several groups of traffic may be encountered and that the extent and nature of the improvement must be such as will meet the requirements of all classes of traffic, the most important being first provided for, and that of lesser importance as rapidly as finances permit. ”

“ The big percent is one way traffic. To get a block or so away from where you are you execute some geometric figures they didn't have in the books when I took geometry.
This day we had an accident. Driving in the downtown congestion a car from the lane to our right pulled into us, tearing off the right hind fender of our almost brand new convertible. Traffic stopped momentarily only. You would think the two owners were exchanging pleasantries. They gathered up the pieces and pulled out what was left of the fender to keep the tires from scraping, and away we went. ”

“ On a street carrying a daily traffic of 10,000 vehicles, if this traffic were equally distributed throughout the 24-hour day, one such traffic light operated on a half-minute interval would prevent 739 vehicle-miles of movement in a single day. ”

“ Usually any traffic officer will be able to supply the tourist with a copy of the local rules and regulations governing traffic in state or city. Ultimately traffic regulations will be standardized, but as yet there is considerable variation in the matter. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In industrial districts there is a large volume of this class of traffic consisting of motor passenger vehicles used for business and for pleasure and of motor freight vehicles used for general business purposes. In addition, there is certain to be a large amount of motor truck freight traffic incident to the particular industrial pursuits of the cities. Where adequate public highways connect industrial centers, there is invariably a very large amount of inter-city traffic, due in part to the needs of industry and in part to concentration of population in industrial centers. ”

“ Many of us will live to see railway companies in places pulling up their rails and making their tracks suitable for motor-car traffic, charging a toll for private vehicles and carrying the bulk of the traffic in their own motor-cars. ”

“ It has thus, in the absence of available information, often puzzled inquiring minds in the present generation to understand how the heavy passenger traffic was conducted between London and the outlying towns and villages within a radius of twenty miles. ”

“ It may also be desirable to illuminate throughout their length rural sections of the system expected to carry large volumes of traffic, particularly if the traffic includes a large percentage of commercial vehicles. ”

“ The traffic never was sufficient to maintain the road without resorting to a rate upon the neighbouring lands, owing to the diversion of a good deal of the coaching and wagon traffic at Royston for Cambridge, and the Trustees were often in great straits, and on the horns of a dilemma—if they charged enough toll to pay their way, the traffic was driven off the roads ”

“ The company shall not stop or impede traffic in any street or public road, or into or out of any street or public road, further than is necessary for the proper execution of their works. They shall not close against traffic more than one third in width of any street or public road or of any way opening into any street or public road at one time ”

“ At the intersection of important highways, the problem is complicated by the necessity for providing for through traffic in both directions and for traffic which may turn in either direction and the engineer must provide safe roadways for each class of traffic.
Tractive Resistance.—The adoption of a policy regarding the grades on a road involves an understanding of the effect of variation in the character of the surface and in rate of grade upon the energy required to transport a load [Pg 50] over the highway. ”

“ And the vehicular traffic of the street is essentially the high road traffic very roughly adapted to the new needs. The cab is a simple development of the carriage, the omnibus of the coach, and the supplementary traffic of the underground and electric railways is a by no means brilliantly imagined adaptation of the long-route railway. ”

“ When passing oncoming traffic, a driver shall leave sufficient lateral space and, if necessary, move close to the edge of the carriageway appropriate to the direction of traffic. If in so doing he finds his progress impeded by an obstruction or by the presence of other road-users, he shall slow down and if necessary stop to allow the oncoming road-user or road-users to pass. ”

“ Relatively little serious damage was done, but the fact that traffic had often to be or worked under difficulties, the reduced lighting generally maintained throughout the more vulnerable parts of the country, and the congestion which followed each cessation of traffic constituted serious hindrances to railway working. ”

“ So that, although the object of the company is simply to get the traffic, the public have an interest in their getting the traffic and allowing the carriage at a rate which will render that traffic possible, and so bring the goods at a cheaper rate, and one which makes it possible for those at a greater distance to compete with those situate nearer to it. ”

“ Little as the fact is now recognized, this kinship of ideas extended to the contemplated arrangements for working. Men thought that traffic on railways might be carried on after the same manner as traffic on high roads. ”

“ Now every new artery means a series of new whirlpools of traffic, such as the pensive Londoner may study for himself at the intersection of Shaftesbury Avenue with Oxford Street, and unless colossal—or inconveniently steep—crossing bridges are made, the wider the affluent arteries the more terrible the battle of the traffic. ”

“ The height of the traffic bands indicates approximately the average density of traffic to be expected at all points on the system. The mounting spires at the principal cities picture the great increases of traffic to be expected on sections of the routes traversing the cities.
Cities important as origin and destination of traffic.—Table 8 presents an analysis of available data on the urban or rural termini of traffic observed on main highways. The data were obtained by the highway planning surveys of typical States in seven regions. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A record is made of the traffic every thirteenth day throughout the year, and an average taken to determine its mean amount. Some such general method of classifying traffic in units is desirable, as it permits the traffic of a road to be expressed in one number. ”

“ Such traffic at present constitutes a relatively small part of the travel on public highways, except on certain favorable routes, but as the wealth of the country increases and good touring roads are numerous, long distance travel will increase and will eventually necessitate the construction of a number of well maintained national highways, located with reference to the convenience of the automobile tourist. ”

“ Freight Traffic Manager, N.Y.C. Lines, Chicago, spent some time in his youth in Canada. Minus the sustained efforts of these officials, of their passenger confreres and the gentlemen comprising the solicitation staff identified with the traffic departments, the railways could boast of gilded coaches and a nickel rail and then be doomed to failure, notwithstanding the swan songs sung by some of our operating friends, declared a very prominent traffic officer in the Northwest. ”