RESEARCHERS STAGING GRAND TRAFFIC COUNT

Twenty-four students of the Bureau for Street Traffic Research have been conducting a count of the volume and variety of traffic in the Yard and in the Harvard Square vicinity. A map showing the results of the count together with a report will be available Monday.

During the past few years the traffic problem in the Square has become increasingly acute. Last spring a plan of rotary traffic was adopted and later abandoned as impractical.

Students have been counting vehicles on all the streets from Memorial Drive to Garden and Kirkland Streets, M. A. Kraft research assistant for the Bureau, revealed yesterday. The numbers of vehicles reported on each street from 7:00 o'clock in the morning to 7:00 o'clock in the evening are being tabulated in a large diagram called a "flow map." Eight feet square, the flow map indicates the volume of traffic on any street by the width of that street on the map. Hence, on a preliminary scale drawing of the map, Massachusetts Avenue was drawn at least five times as wide as Holyoke Street.

Yard Survey

A count of everything entering or leaving the Yard has been conducted by students for the past few weeks. Results of these observations will also be shown on the flow map. Sex of pedestrians; bicycles, and all kinds of vehicles have been recorded.

The results of another survey, including observations of the traffic in Harvard Square, will be released shortly after the spring recess. These observations will be of various sorts; for example, the number of people who stop at the flashing red-lights behind the fire station will be counted; the speed of vehicles on Massachusetts Avenue will be computed and averaged by photo-electric cells and by pads on the street itself.

All jay-walkers will be counted in the second survey, and a record of all motorists who drive through red, red and yellow, or yellow lights will be made.

Variety of Futures

Students at the Bureau, all of whom are registered in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, usually enter a variety of fields, Kraft said. Some have used their traffic experience for firsthand work, enrolling with the state police. Others have become traffic engineers, or have entered the field of regional planning.