Electric Eye Which Sees and Warns Traffic

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 613, 15 March 1929, Page 9

Electric Eye Which Sees and Warns Traffic

Mechanical Marvel NEW IDEAS IN NEW YORK One-way footpaths are New York's j latest means for controlling pedestrian traffic in the luncheon hour . One way streets, and many other traffic prohibitions have been adopted during the theatre-hour rush, going and coming, by Grover Whalen, former manager of Wanamakers, New York’s biggest store, who is now police commissioner. An electrical eye, which sees traffic needs and automatically controls signals was demonstrated before the meeting of the New Y r ork Electric Society. The device, which is the invention of Dr. Philip Thomas, research engineer of the Westinghouse Company, is the keystone of a new system, which would give motorists on a main street the green or “go” signal continuously until a car on a side street came within a short distance of the intersection. Then the lights would go on a pre-arranged or set programme of operation, flashing green and red at set periods. After the cross-street traffic had passed the lights would return to green on the main street and stay that way till another car appeared on the side avenue.

The electric eye is placed in a mushroom covering in the street, with white lines marking its position, and comes into action when a car or other vehicle passes over it, casting a shade over the eye. DIFFERING REMEDIES

Mr. Whalen’s plan to correct New York’s traffic ills consists of six essential parts, two of which depend on public co-operation for success. The first is the creation of a theatre zone, with recognition of the fact that its traffic is different from that of other sections, requiring different remedies.

The second is the adoption by theatres of a “stagger” plan of certain times between 8.30 and 9 pjn. The third is the prohibition of all turns in this zone between 7.30 and 11 p.m. on week-days. The fourth is the banishment of all sightseeing and suburban buses, delivery waggons and trucks, and of cruising taxi-cabs, so far as is consistent with public convenience from the zone between S and 9 and 10.30 and 11.30 p.m. on week days. The fifth is a request to theatregoers who ride to theatres in taxis to pay their fares a block away from their destination to avoid the delay and consequent congestion of settling bills while standing beside taxis in front of theatres. The sixth is the severance of the traffic light system in the theatre zone from that of the rest of the city, so that revisions may be made in the synchronising of the signals without disrupting the flow of traffic outside the theatre district.