TRAFFIC COMMISSIONER EBULLIENT MR BARNES IS KING OF N. YORK TRAFFIC

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30419, 18 April 1964, Page 12

TRAFFIC COMMISSIONER EBULLIENT MR BARNES IS KING OF N. YORK TRAFFIC

[Reprinted by arrangement with the “Financial Timet* 1 A few weeks ago, Mr Henn* A. Barnes, New York’s troubleshooting Traffic Commissioner, boomed from a sick bed that, once back on his feet, he would act to curb the irksome blare of motor horns. Barnes had gone to bis bed after an unusually vitriolic 12 months in which he had fought with Italians seeking to paint a purple line along Fifth avenue for Columbus Day; had rebuked doctors’ wives for abusing the parking privileges of their husbands; had generally attacked feminine driving techniques, and had fought with the city’s bureaucracy on a host oi controversial issues, ranging from provisions of additional parking facilities to extensions in the subway system.

Inevitably, after so many battles, Barnes could not report an unqualified victory. But, after one of his more recent moves to extend oneway traffic arrangements along principal thoroughfares —including Broadway and Sixth Avenue—even an occasional taxi-driver was prepared to concede that traffic is moving more quickly than it did. Barnes himself is not a man to keep his views to himself and. after fighting traffic jams and conservatism in the U.S. for more than a quarter of a century, he is not to be intimidated by harsh responses. Starting as a police traffic officer at Flint, Michigan, in 1937, he graduated through Denver, Colorado, and Baltimore, Maryland, before coming to New York two years ago as “the top authority in the country.” En route, he managed to reduce motoring time along four miles of one blocked Baltimore road from 45 to 17 minutes, and by persistent bantering persuaded the authorities to raise his operating budget 400 per cent over an eight-year stay in the city.

“Misunderstood”

On his way up, Barnes has viewed traffic problems in most European capitals. He found the worst chaos in Rome where to open his mouth was an unforgivable sin—it tended to “spoil all the fun.” In Paris, too, he was curtly told to mind his own business—only to hear subsequently that the authorities there had begun studiously examining his recommendations—while of his visits to London he has but one comment that he was “misunderstood.”

On the traffic plane, Barnes argues, “London is where we were 25 years ago, but that's fortunate because it can profit where we made mistakes.” London’s traffic jam, Barnes feels, could be eased considerably through “better directional signing, some good paint, a good signalling system and much greater use of one way streets.” But above all, he adds, the traffic director must have power of decision —“if he is no good, fire him, but don’t leave him to be grilled in your House of Commons.”

In New York, of course, Barnes has the benefit—or misfortune—of “sole responsibility.” In his first year in New York, for instance, Barnes .introduced a so-called “crosstown roll” on certain key thoroughfares, prohibiting

parking from 8 a.m. to 7 p.in. on all weekdays. He has also experimented at busy roadjunctions with a "Barnes’ Dance" which he first tried in Denver more than a decade ago. In the “dance" —which has already been adopted in such prominent American cities as Washington. D.C. — pedestrians may cross the road only when the traffic lights show “red” to all vehicles, but they may then cross in any direction they like.

In his own department, meanwhile, Barnes has rid himself of the traditional 8hour day, 5-day week, and substituted a 7-day round-the-clock operation. A lover of paint, he has introduced more efficient vehicles for painting traffic lines in the city’s streets; he has raised the number of radio-equipped vehicles under his control from 2 to 1,000, and he has begun installing across New York a whole new set of “vandalresistant” parking meters. Most ambitious of all, however, in the current Barnes programme is a project—still unrealised—for installing an electronic signalling system throughout the city which would allow traffic lights to be regulated according to traffic flow. Altogether, the project would cost about 100 million dollars or too much to impress some city authorities. But Barnes notes that a crosstown expressway—which has long been considered for Manhattan—would cost about 126 million dollars and that the “Narrows” bridge currently under construction at the entrance to New York harbour

will involve an overall outlay of over 300 million dollars. In introducing his techniques. Barnes has vigorously courted publicity and has often been criticised for doing so. But for him, his service must be sold like any other, and he proposes to sell it by anv legitimate means at his disposal. Thus, after meeting opposition from country-lovers to an idea for providing parking lots beneath the city's parks, he merely chants, with a sarcastic grin from his thin, lined face: “Spare that slippery elm of mine, it’s the only one my wife can't climb.” For all Barnes' vociferous efforts, New York still has its traffic blocks. But the problems to be overcome are indicated by the consideration that the city’s 60.000 miles of streets have to accommodate 2 million resident cars and another 1.6 million which are driven in daily. At 15 feet a car, this makes roughly one foot of vehicle for every six feet of street, and motorists seldom spread themselves regularly. In this situation, Barnes sees the eventual solution to New York’s traffic problems in vastly improved commuter transport systems—ln spite of the fact that presure has recently been mounting for an increase in the city’s traditional 15-cent subway fare. While trying, in the meantime, to improve existing transport facilities in the city, Barnes was sent to bed with a heart attack and he does not expect to be back at work for some days. But he has no intention yet, of abandoning his outspoken struggle.