US1515251A - Street-traffic system - Google Patents

Description

Nov. 11 1924.

H. W. GRAVES STREET TRAFFIC SYSTEM 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 11, 1924 .77 V2! for" Nov. 11 1924 1,515,251

H. W. GRAVES STREET TRAFFIC SYSTEM Filed June 11, 1924 2 Sheets-Sheet. 2

1M JLLL 4 I xl I I v In Mani-0r. I

# 07 GU -J Patented Nov. 11, 1924.

UNITED STATES PATENT, OFFICE.

HENRY w. canvas, or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, .ASSIGNOR or onsnALr roman r. occur, or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

STREET-TRAFFIC SYSTEM.

hpplication filed June 11, 1924. Serial No. 719,241.

T all whom it may concern.-

Be it known thatI, HENRY W. GRAVES, citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in a Street-Traific System; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame. 1

My invention relates to a system of street crossings for facilitating the movement of vehicles at'street intersections and for great- 1y reducing the possibility of accidents, while also eliminating the need of traflic oflicers and tratlic signals. 1 s

For these general purposes, my invention provides street crossing constructions in which the roadways'of intersecting streets will always be disposed one above another, so as to afford a continuous free travel of all vehicles; and also rovides foot passages oil the level of the roa ways crossed by them 5 so'as not to expose pedestrians to any danger whatever in crossing streets. My invention also rovides street crosssin s arranged to aflfor loading platforms or street cars Without 'obliging the street car passengers to cross any tracks, and disposes these loading platforms so that the waiting or alighting' persons will be sheltered from rain. Furthermore, my invention provides an arrangement of elevated driveways which will 36 greatly facilitate themaking of turns by vehicles and particularly the making of ri ht-hand turns, and which also will permit left-hand turns to be made at certain street intersect-ions without having the vehi- 40 cles making such left-hand turns'cross the path of other vehicles or in any wayhinder the free movement of other vehicles. 1 I

In a still further aspect, my invention provides a system of such street crossings in which arrangements of the crossings at the four corners of each block is consecut-ively shifted so that the various distinctive parts of my crossing construction will 00-. operate with each other in facilitating the movement of vehicles to and from any part of the city, and so that right-hand turns can readily be made by vehicles around every corner of most of the city blocks and also around certain corners of other blocks.

Moreover, it provides a system for this pur" pose with-which the ordinary driver of an automobile can soon familiarize himself, which will entirely obviate the need of trafiic oflicers and trailic signals, and one which will not interfere with the free movement of pedestrians around the street corners or with their convenient access to buildings at these corners.v Still further and also more detailed objects will appear from the following specification and from the accompanying drawings, in which-- Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a street intersection showing a crossing construction embodying my invention.

Fig. 2is a plan view of a portion of a city, showing such crossing constructions as arranged in a highly advantageous manner.

Fig. 3 is a somewhat diagrammatic plan view of one of the street crossings of .Figs. 1 and 2, showing how my arrangement facilitates the movement of both pedestrians-and vehicles. I H I Fig. 4 is a similar diagram showing. a somewhat simplified arrangement, suitable foriuse on particularly-wide streets. Y

In accomplishing the purposes of my in vention after the manner oftheawompanying drawings, my first step. iconsists in de-, pressing each street at alternate intersections below the street crossingthe same, sothat every street will have both its roadway and I the adjacent sidewalks level at one street intersection, with the transverse'roadway and sidewalks passing under the'sanie. At the next intersection the arrangement is reversed, namely :the first named street will have itsroadway and sidewalks depressed and passing under the-next cross-street, with the latter extending on the 'level both as to its roadway and as to its sidewalks.

Asa second step, I provide angular driveways adjacent to threecorners of each street intersection and each affording a right-hand turn for vehicles. Each of these driveways comprises a driveway which is firstinclined upwardly towards the corner along. one street and then downwardly along the other street and which has its elevated corner portion arched above the sidewalk sosas. to afford the passageway for pedestrians under the same. Thus, with th street L of Fig. 3 on the level, the arrows 1, 2 and 3 indicate the right-hand turns which can readily be made by vehicles around three corners of the intersection, so that in each case the corner turning vehicles will pass above the pedestrians on the sidewalks. By doing this and by also extending the sidewalks 4 of the level street (or street under which the cross-street U passes) across and above the latter as shown at 5 in Figs. 1 and 3, I permit the pedestrians along the sidewalk of the said level street L to move con-- tinuously without being blocked at any time by vehicles and without delaying such vehicles. Meanwhile, the pedestrians along the sidewalks 6 of the partly depressed street C can cross the level street safely by going down one of the Stairways 7 as shown in Fig. 1 through a passage under the roadwa of the said level street L.

is a second step, 1 connect the diagonally opposite right-angled turning elevated driveways corresponding to the arrows 1 and 2 of Fl 3 by an elevated roadway 8 which e ectively extends diagonally across the street intersection, thereby permitting vehicles which are traveling from the right-hand end of Fig. 3 to make a left-hand turn as shown by the arrow 9 of that figure. Since these vehicles are moving in the same direction as those which turn to the'right after the manner of the arrow 3, and since they head towards the downward incline at the further side of the crossstreet in the same direction with vehicles turning as indicated by the arrow 1, the various vehicles will not have their paths cross each other. Instead, they continuously move in the same general direction, thereby avoiding all confusion, obviating the necessity of traffic officers or signals, and also avoiding delays.

As a still further step, I desirably also provide a downward incline in substantial extension of the upward incline of the driveway along which vehicles travel in the direction of the arrows 3 and 9, so as to permit vehicles which have started up the same incline to pass downward as indicated by the arrow 10 to the level street at the op posite side of the crossing. By doing this. I enable vehicles from the right-hand of Fig. 3 to move in a steady stream over certain parts of my driveway and cross-over system, regardless of the three directions which they may wish to pursue, namely the right-hand turn of the arrow 3, the lefthand turn of the arrow 9, or the straightahead direction of the arrow 10. In practice, such a provision is highly desirable on streets of average width in which the approach incline for such a threaforked driveway comes rather close to the street car tracks, as the vehicles wishing to continue straight along the street will not be required to turn into the tracks first. Furthermore, this arrangement enables me to faciliate the loading and unloading of street cars at such a crossing, by simply provid ing loading, platforms ad]acent to the car tracks under the elevated part of the said three-forked driveway. Such a loading platform is shown in Fig. 1 at 11, and since this has its major portion disposed under the driveway, it is effectively sheltered from rain, thereby adequately protecting both the unloading passengers and those who may be waiting for the cars.

In employing such a cross-over construction in the business section of any city, ll desirably vary the disposition of the same not only as to the depression of each street at alternate corners, but also as to the direction in which one of the driveways affords through travel without having the vehicle alter its direction. For this purpose, I preferably shift the direction of this through travel by turning the system ninety degrees to the right at every consecutive corner along these streets, thereby causing the various features of my arrangement to cooperate with each other in facilitating vehicle traffic and in enabling vehicles to reach any desired points expeditiously and without confusion.

For example, in Figm2 the arrows diagrammatically indicate the directions of travel afforded for vehicles by the application of my system to a section of acity. From this figure it will be obviousthat right hand turns can be made around every corner of each of the blocks marked R, and also about alternate corners of the blocks marked D. It will also be evident that in every group of nine blocks comprising a rectangle having three blocks on each side, six out of the nine permit right-hand turns at every corner, while two other blocks permit such turns only at their diagonally opposite corners. In other words, the highly important right-hand turns are permitted at 28 out of the 36 corners in such a nine block section.

Referring now to the illustrative embodiment of Fig. 1, itwill be evident from this that the single right-hand turning driveway at the street intersection consists-of an upward incline 12 connected to a downward incline 13; and that one right-hand turn from the level street L at the opposite side of the depressed cross-street C is made by an upward incline 14 leading to a downward incline 15. The third upward incline 16 which provides three different paths is connected to the downward incline 17 for a right-hand turn, to the straight-ahead downward incline 18, and to a cross-over 19 which also leads to the downward incline 15. This cross-over 19 and the portion of the elevated driveway leading to it may be disposed substantially at right angles to each other, but still cooperate to afiord a three difl'erent downward driveways and hence will have relatively heavy trafficon it, I preferably make this wider than the driveway portions 17, 18 and 1.9. However, I do not wish to be limited to this or other details of the construction and arrangement here disclosed, it bein obvious that many changes might be ma e without departing either from the spirit of my invention or from the appended claims.

I claim as my invention 1. In a street crossing, an elevated roadway extending efi'ectively diagonally across the street intersection, inclined driveways connecting each end of the elevated roadwayto both streets and respectively aflording right-hand turns from one of the streets to the second street at the diagonally opposite street corners between which the elevated roadway. efl'ectively extends, the elevated roadwa cooperating also with two of the incline driveways to afford a left-hand turn from the said one street to the said second street.

2. In a street crossin an elevated roadway extending effective y diagonally across the street intersection, inclined driveways connecting each end of the elevated roadway to both streets and respectively affording right-hand turns from one of the streets to the second street at the diagonally olpposite street corners between whlch the e evated roadway effectively extends, the elevated roadway cooperating also with two of the inclined driveways to afford a lefthand turn from'the said one street to the said second street, each of the inclined driveways extending parallel and adjacent to a street curb.

3. In a street crossing, driveways arching over the sidewalks of the intersecting streets and comprising an elevated roadway having two legs extendin respectively across the two streets, two pairs of inclined driveways respectively connectingthe ends of the said elevated roadway to both streets, and a fifth inclined drivewa leadin from the juncture of the said two egs of t e elevated roadway downwardly to the first named street.

4. At the intersection of a first and a second street, driveways arching over the adjacent sidewalks and com rising two driveways adjacent to diagona 1y 0 posite corners of the intersection and eac affording a right-hand turn from the first street to the second street, an elevated roadway connecting the higher portions of the said two dr veways, and. a downward incline leading 'from the elevated roadway to the first street along the right-hand side of the latter.

5. At the intersection of a first anda second street, driveways. arching over the adjacent sidewalks and com rising two driveways adjacent to diagona ly opposite corners of the intersection and a each affording a right-hand turn from the first street to the second street, an elevated roadway connecting the higher portions of the said two driveways, and a downward incline leading from the elevated roadway to the first street along the righthand side of the latter, and another driveway extending around the street corner diagonally opposite to the said downward incline and a ording a ri thand turn from the second street to the rst street.

6. A street crossing construction as per claim 3, in combination with a loading latform extending below the first named leg of the elevated roadway.

7. A street crossing construction as per claim 3, in which the roadwa of the intersecting street is depressed and passes underneath the first named street.

8. A street crossin construction as per claim 3, in which hot the roadway of the intersecting street and the sidewalks at opposite sides of the said roadway are depressed and pass underneath the first named street.

9. A street crossing construction as per claim 3, in which both the first leg of the elevated roadway and the inclined driveway leading upwardly to t at leg from the first named street are wider than the other roadway and driveway portions.

10. At the intersection of a first street with a second street, two driveways arching above the adjacent sidewalks at diagonally opposite corners of the street intersection and each affording a right-hand turn from. the first street to the second street, and an elevated roadway connecting the higher portions of the two driveways and cooperatin with parts of the latter to afiord a left-hand turn from the first street to the further side of the second street, the connection between the elevated roadway and the driveway at the said farther side of the second street.

being such as to prevent a driving from the last named driveway into the elevated way.

11. A street crossing system having street crossing constructions at each corner as per claim 5, the dis osition of the driveways and the inclines being shifted ninety degrees to the right at each consecutive crossing along either street.

12. A street crossing system having'street crossing constructions at each corner as per claim 5, the disposition of the driveways and the inclines being shifted ninety degrees to the right at each consecutive cross' alo either street such as to alford rig t-haii turns around every corner of three consecutive blocks out of every four consecntiv blocks along a given street. 1

13. A street crossing system having street crossing constructions at each corner as per 5) claim 5 the disposition of the driveways and the'inclines being shifted ninety degrees to the right at each consecutive crossing along either street, each street being alternately above and below the crossing streets at consecutive intersections.

14. A street crossing construction as per claim 1, in which the said second street has its roadway depressed and passing below the roadway of the said one stree Signed at Chicago, Illinois, June 9th, 19%.

ENRY W. GRAVES.

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