Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1959-07-10
$1.2MiIIion Radio Control Network
For Signal Lights to Speed Troffic
BY MICHAEL MOK
star stan Writer

District traffiic light poles are
sprouting antennae.
These futuriStic gadgets, sim
liar In appearance TO miniature
radar ears, are not designed to
handle flying saucer landings
but as the latest word in trafiic
control, they'll handle almost
anything else.
Partly responsible for the odd
looking things Cand proud Of IT.
Is Highway Director Harold L.
Aitken, who with the District
Engineer Commissioners ONCE.
yesterday revealed:
Washington is going to have
"the most modern trafiic light
system in the United States
!"
And motorists will begin to
enjoy 1t within the next 80
days.
To make this possible, the
District is paying out $1.2 mil
lion for a radio control network
capable Of stretching an invis-
ible finger across the city to
adjust trafiic signals at q single
troublesome intersection.
At present. about 600 traffic
signals in the downtown area
are connected by LAND lines"
or underground wires. These
nerves under WaShington's
pavement skin enable highway
engineers to slow down or speed
up all connected lights, if
either seems necessary.
But what If the control cen
ter wants to change only one
signal? Under the existing Sys-
TEN it can't be done, without
disturbing the others.
How about trafiic lights at
key intersections outside the
downtown area?
They're running wild, as we
call it," explained Col. Jess P.
Unger, Assistant Engineer Com
missioner. Those lights are
out Of step with downtown"
Within a few weeks, Mr..
Aitken promised, tadio control
will permit motorists to drive
up Connecticut avenue from
the Calvert Street Bridge to
the District line without APP
plying ,brakes-barring bull
headed snarls, wrecks and UNI
forseen circumstances.
Here's how the new equip
ment works:
At the Highway Department
Building at Fourteenth and G |
streets Sc, traffic experts will
tend the brains" Of the sys-
tenn. These consist of a clock |
and programmer, control knobs
and buttons, and coder.
The men behind the machines
"feed" their clock and program
mer commands on punched
tapes. The holes in the tape
form orders for handling almost
any sort Of trafflc problem
imaginable.
These taped Snarl solutions 60
into the coder, which translates
them into sound signals. The
signals (Which are almost mu-
sicaD are passed on to, a radio
tranSmitter on Reno road.
! The Reno road radio beams
the signals to the proper inter-
section, where the antenna on
the post catches them, passes
the message to a receiver-de-
coder-which in turn translates
the information into language
the traffic light understands"
and obeyS.
In contrast to the radio con-
trolled system Washington
plans to adopt, Baltimore
employs a highly complex net
work of interconnected UNDER
ground cable which is moni-
tored in a central station.
Another fundamental differ
ence between the systems is
that Baltimore keeps q con-
tinual radar count of traffic
on 16 arterial routes. This in
formation is transmitted to the
control center, which auto
matically sends out impulses to
adjust traffic lights to accomo-
date the flow.
District traffic experts
pointed out the Maryland sys-
TEN has cost SIS million in the
past five years, and has meant
tearing up the streets.