Cambridge Traffic

Cambridge is a city of 6.2 square miles, 98,958 people and 37,440 registered motor vehicles. For many years it has been distinguished by a cruel rat maze of street patterns and traffic signals, pedestrians who enjoy the legal right-of-way over red lights and policemen, heavy trucks that rumble through the city for points north of Boston, and commuters from Belmont and Watertown who drive a legion of automobiles into Cambridge, park them, and leave on the MTA for work. While these distinguishing features have persisted, Cambridge traffic has become more snarled with each passing year.

Last spring, in a long-overdue action, the City Council voted, eight to one, to hire a professional traffic engineer. After searching the Eastern Seaboard, City Manager Curry decided on Robert E. Rudolph, then an assistant in the Baltimore traffic department. Curry offered Rudolph $12,000 a year for the new job, promised him a staff and a budget, and told him to do something about Cambridge traffic.

Aside from the complexity of the traffic problems themselves, Mr. Rudolph has encountered a number of difficulties. Most of them have arisen from the nature of Cambridge politics, which encourages a curious outlook on the part of some members of the City Council. The rest of his troubles, however, have resulted from Rudolph's own over-eagerness.

As Traffic Director, Rudolph has been granted broad powers to create new traffic regulations and to institute fines. In this way, more farsighted members of the City Council hoped that Rudolph could remove the traffic problem from Cambridge politics. But other members of the Council see only the inverse relationship between the number of fines levied and the number of happy voters. Unfortunately, any improvement in traffic conditions necessitates a rigorous enforcement of laws, i.e., more fines and fewer votes.

At recent City Council meetings, certain members have called all of Rudolph's programs "ridiculous" and the man himself "inept, stubborn, arrogant--the leader of organized persecution against the poorer residents of Cambridge and Harvard students on scholarship." These members have asked for Rudolph's dismissal, hoping to abolish the post of City Traffic Director altogether.

Mr. Rudolph's opponents have not presented any alternatives to the Traffic Director's program. They have merely asserted that "things aren't that bad" and that "the Police Chief, Fire Chief, and the Cambridge Electrician are qualified to meet any problems in traffic." But things really are quite bad, and the Cambridge Police Chief, Fire Chief, and Electrician, competent as they may be, all lack the specialist's training needed to cope with the city's tangled traffic.

The ambitious Rudolph has, however, been somewhat premature in his fiscal requests. Earlier this year, he requested a budget of $20,000 a month for the next six years and a paid staff of forty. The City Council called his request "outrageous." An untried man in an untried post, Rudolph was lucky to get even the $41,000 budget he has been allotted for the coming fiscal year.

The controversial "Snow Emergency" plan has an obvious weakness. During a "Snow Emergency," Rudolph has ordered all parked cars moved from the city's main arteries and from some of the secondary streets. If this law were obeyed, there would not be enough space in the city to accommodate Cambridge's 37,440 vehicles. When asked about the situation, Rudolph suggested, "Let'em find a place." or that Cambridge build garages to accommodate cars during a "Snow Emergency." The city probably will not build garages for Rudolph.

Rudolph does have some promising ideas: a computer-controlled traffic light system, a no-parking law on main streets during rush hours, and one way streets. But the Traffic Director says that without an adequate budget ($41,000 is far from enough) he will have difficulty producing results. He fears that the City Council will dismiss him without ever giving him sufficient funds.

Rudolph needs a few years to prove that he deserves the job. If he seems incompetent after this time, he should be dismissed. But the post of Traffic Director ought to be maintained; traffic problems can best be handled outside the City Council.

Rudolph seems to be a sensible man. Cambridge should cooperate with him, and certain members of the City Council should leave him alone. Traffic in the city might improve. Can it get any worse?