The Washington times., 1925-06-19
with The
.Alibi Artists
Signal Lights on Can't
levers Better Than
First Plan, But Face
Difficulties
Many Miss Traffic Cops
By DONALD McDOUGAL.

By DONALD McDOUGAk.
We see by the papers that the
traffic directors office favors for
Sixteenth street signal lights hung
on cantilevers projecting from
poles at the curb.
That arrangement is a lot bet.
ter than the original one OF con-
crete-embed pillars in the mid
die of the roadway. IT isn't
dangerous, Il doesn't take up any
traffic space, and any unsightli.
mess due to predominance OF the
mechanical motif in the cantileyer
design VIII be partly hidden by
the trees.
Very likely the signals viii be
hidden, too. at times, but that
can be renedied by saving off g
we can't help feeling that some
considerable difficulty will Nbe
encountered in working out m
acceptable design based on the
cantilever.
somehow. that mechanical de-
vice seems out Of harmony with
the spirit Of Sixteenth street. Its
too much like a bricllayer's scat.
fold in q church. 1t has q tenn
porary kind Of look.
It's underlying principle is EN-
bodied In the hangman's gallows.
Worse than that, It suggests
work ighteen story buildings and
derficks and travelling cranes in
q steel mil It's too clanking for,
Sixteenth street.
Things Of beauty have been
fashioned from the column; the
beam; the arch: the dome. But
where, In all architecture, from
Ur Of the Chaldees to Winnie.
peg. Manitoba &c that's where
Winniepeg Id can you find any.
thing beautiful connected with
the cantilever?
Sixteenth street suggests re-
pose. 1t suggests grandeur, and
power (even IL Il Is numbered
like & convict:l IT'S the street
where nations live; the street
Of temples you could set the
Parthenon down there and num-
her 1t 2107 sixteenth street. and
be almost within yohr rights.
Derricks and cranes and such
like jointed apparatus are out OF
place In that locality, unless
there's e h'ist'n' epJine TO go
along with them. Hey! Bill!
Send up d load o. brick.
II the posts are planted on the
right side of the street at one
intersection and on the left at
the next, as seems to be the In
tention, well find ourselves in
about the same fix we are now
when we're looking for traffic
cop.
You'd be surprised how many
people run past a traffic cop
without seeing hin-no because
he isn't big enough, or because
he's inconspicuously placed, but
because they don't know where to
look for him. We've recorded q
hundred cases like that IN the
last two years.
Set cop some twenty feet
from his usual stations and ten
drivers out Of hundred VIII
run past him and never know
he's there until he jumps on
their running board.
With this will-o' -the.wisp ar
rangement Of lights the pedes-
TRAN will catch 1t worse than
the drivers. The signal may be
on any one Of four corners. and
a certain percentage OF pedes-
TRANS will take chances on get
ting across rather than make
the search. On rainy days, when
umbrellas are In bloom. the per-
centage will be greater.
Uniformity is the big thing in
traffic signals. IL we get the
habit Of looking In one particular
place for our instructions, we'll
always look there.
There's only one place that's
always the same, always seen
with equal ease from all four
corners, and that's the center Of
the intersection.
A fine steel wire cable isn't
visible at night, and 1t isn't no
ticeable in the daytime unless
you look for it, and then you
generally have to look twice.
And it holds the light where
you want 1t.
When you come right down
to 1t, it's case of overhead
cables, cranes on all four corners,
nVs rnrfnaiov,