TRAFFIC CONTROL IN PICCADILLY

Southland Times, Issue 23438, 19 February 1938, Page 18

TRAFFIC CONTROL IN PICCADILLY

NEW AUTOMATIC SYSTEM BEST IN WORLD

Britain is leading the world in electric traffic control; last week Piccadilly Circus was mastered and now all the traffic flowing through this very complicated and pulsing traffic centre of London is controlled automatically. Every day nearly 50,000 vehicles pass through the Circus; in the peak hours as many as 6000 an hour enter and leave the Circus by one or other of the junctions. This is the most intricate crossing, or circus that has ever been mastered by traffic light?. Installation cost £6600 and it will cost £5OOO a year to operate them. Against this, however, 12 police constables are freed for duty in other parts of Westminster. The system was set in operation by the Minister of Transport (Dr EL. Burgin). So important is this development regarded that representatives from foreign states, including some of the states of America, attended the inaugural ceremony, and they have been inspecting other “Eva” systems, of which there are now more than 1000 in Britain. , The rate of traffic flow is governed by the fluidity of the traffic itself. It is entirely automatic, and the green and red light periods vary with the traffic flows. The master switch in the Piccadilly system is duplicated to ensure continuity of operation and has been popularly christened “Little Eva.”