Rudolph Outlines New Traffic Program

Cambridge Traffic Director Robert E. Rudolph yesterday asked the City to either double the size of his budget or scuttle the traffic department which he runs.

Outlining a comprehensive traffic program for Cambridge, Rudolph wrote the City Council: "This is what we need. If the city is not prepared to furnish this we can only 'peck away' at the problem instead of solving it. This 'pecking' can be done without a traffic department and without wasting any further money for personnel who are hamstrung in their efforts."

Rudolph called for a jump in his budget from about $143,000 to $450,000. In his letter, he said that "if traffic is straightened out" the City's citizens "stand to save two million dollars annually due to insurance costs, operating costs and unnecessary congestions."

But Rudolph also reported that his efforts this year had only resulted in "increased insurance rates [of] at least $100,000 to the citizens of Cambridge" and an accident rate above last year's. "We can expect another insurance increase if we don't do something about it," he warned.

In his program, Rudolph urged larger expenditures for a computer-controlled traffic light system and an increase in his department's personnel. About $100,000 of the request would merely be the transferring of funds and men from the City's Department of Public Works. Men from public works are already working under Rudolph to paint traffic patterns on the City's roads and put up signs; he is asking their formal transfer to his department.

Under heavy attack from the City Council all year, Rudolph appeared before the nine-man body and received more of the same yesterday. Councillor Andrew T. Trodden said that things which could easily he corrected-like one way streets that suddenly become tow way streets and stoplights that go off after midnight-caused many of the accidents.

Rudolph told the Council that he was presently attempting to reclassify all one-way streets and the state law compelled him to turn off many of the traffic lights after 12 p.m.

City Manager John J. Curry '19 didn't appear too happy about Rudolph's request for more funds. Curry suggested some "simple changes" which wouldn't "take any $450,000 or any more personnel than he now has."