?v-

. ■ .

THE THOROUGHFARES

AND TRAFFIC OF PATERSON

A REPORT

OF THE

CITY PLAN COMMISSION

PATERSON, NEW JERSEY

PREPARED BY

HERBERT S. SWAN

CONSULTANT

1922.

Return this book on or before the
Latest Date stamped below. A
charge is made on all overdue

books.

U. of I. Library

± 'J jj ,

M32

1 he Thoroughfares and T raffic of Paterson

A REPORT

OF THE

CITY PLAN COMMISSION

PATERSON, NEW JERSEY

PREPARED P,Y

HERBERT S. SWAN

CONSULTANT

lU'port Approvc'd by City Plan Connuission,
.JANUARY 20, l!t22.

•fl

I,-

36'ti.OI

fXl-t

CITY I’LAN COMMISSION

r.lORTKAM JI. SAUNDERS, Cluiirman
FliANK A. CIUOL
JACOB FABIAN
WILLIAM T. FANNING
R. G. HUGHES
ELSWORTH M. LEE
THOMAS H. MILSON
JOHN J. O’ROURKE, Secretary

TECHNICAL STAFF

HERBERT S. SWAN and Associates
HERBERT S. SWAN, Director
GEORGE W. TUTTLE, Engineer
R. PARTINGTON, Chief Draughtsman
F. W. LOOK, Draughtsman
J. C. VEENSTRA, Draughtsman
I HILDA S. PROVOST, Secretary

COPY1MOHT, 1922, CITY I’CAN COMMISSION
PATIOKSON, NEW JERSEY

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Page

Chapter I. Causes of Street Congestion in Paterson 1

Defects in the Street Plan.

Railroad Grade Crossings.

The Trolleys.

The Jitneys.

Parking.

Chapter II. Regulating Traffic to Relieve Street Congestion 16

Changing Character of Traffic.

The Separation of Fast and Slow Traffic.

Parking.

Trolley Stops.

Re-routing of Trolleys and Jitneys.

Features of Proposed Plan.

Present Routes and Proposed Re-routings.

Advantages of Proposed Plan.

Chapter III. Functional Street Planning ,38

A Scientific Paving Policy.

Cross Sections of Residential Streets.

Cross Sections of Business Streets,

Street Intersections and Curb Corners.

Chapter IV. Needed Improvements in the City’s Street System 47

Bridge Street.

Water Street.

Marshall Street.

The Fallsway Memorial.

Straight Street.

Market Street.

Lakeview Avenue.

The Boulevard.

Morris and Essex Boulevard.

Newark Avenue.

York Avenue.

Madison Avenue.

Sixteenth Avenue and Crosl)y Place.

Morton Street.

East Fifth Street.

Van Houten Street.

Twenty-Third Avenue.

Summer Street Viaduct.

Clark Street.

Passaic River Bridges.

(fiiapter V. The Administrative and Phnancial Machinery for

Carrying out the Plan 66

The Establishment of Proposed Street Lines.

Immediate Acquisition of Vacant Land within
Proposed Streets.

Gradual Recession of Fronts in Built Portions
of Widenings.

Making Improvements Pay for Themselves.

TAI51.K OF (ONTFNTS (( onlimied)

I’aRt*

Chapter VI. Excess Condemnation 70

Chapter VII. Special Assessments 75

The Benefit Area.

Distribution of Benefits Between Different Areas-
The Ilalf-Value Rule.

One-Third of Buildings Assessed upon the City.
Buildings Within Projected Street Lines.

The Block Rule.

Principles Followed in Estimating Damages for
Buildings.

Principles Followed in Estimating Damages for Land.
Principles Followed in Estimating Damages for
Excess Lands.

Principles Followed in Estimating Damages for
Intended Regulation.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page

Fig. 1. The Falls (Facing) 1

” 2. Map of Paterson 1820 2

” 3. Map of Paterson 1835 4

” 4. Traffic Delayed by Railroad Gates 6

” 5- Length of Traffic Delays 6

” 6. Length of Delay to Vehicles (5

” 7. Time of Closed Gates 6

” 8. Per cent of Traffic Delayed 0

” 9. Per cent of Time Gates Were Closed (5

” 10. Market Street Looking East from Erie Station 7

” 11. Market Street Looking East from City Hall 7

” 12. Washington Street opposite City Hall 8

” 13. Railroad Gates at Broadway 8

” 14. Railroad Crossings 9

” 15. Radial Streets in Paterson and Vicinity 10

” 16. Population of Paterson and Neighboring Suburbs 1870-1920 11

” 17. Madison Avenue and Susquehanna Railroad 12

” 18. Buildings separating two ends of Madison Avenue 12

” 19. Distribution of Population, Pateivson and Vicinity, 1920 13

” 20. Parked Cars on Market Street 14

” 21. Railroad Gates at Mai’ket Street 14

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ((ontinued)

Page

22 .

23 .

24.

25.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

31.

32.

36.

37.

38.

39.

40.

41.

42.

43.

44.

45.

46.

47.

48.

49.

50.

51.

52.

53.

54.

55.

56.

57.

58.

59.

60.
61.
62.

63.

64.

65.

66 .

67.

68 .
69.

Changing- Character of Traffic 16

Flow of Traffic, Main and Intersecting Streets 18

Vehicular Traffic Streams Broadway, Bridge and

Church Streets 20

Vehicular Traffic Streams Main, Broadway and West Streets 22

Parked Cars Downtown Paterson 24

Time Consumed by Trolleys, Main Street, between Market

and Ellison Streets 26

Time Consumed by Trolleys, Main Street, between Ellison

and Broadway 26

Present Trolley Stops 27

Proposed Trolley Stops 27

Per cent of Traffic Delayed by Trolleys 30

Length of Traffic Delays caused by Trolleys 30

Trolley Traffic Streams 32

Plan for Pte-Routing Trolley Traffic 33

Jitney Traffic Streams 34

Plan for Distributing Jitney Traffic 35

The Falls in Summer 37

Market Street Looking West from Erie Station 39

Main Street Looking North from Market Street 39

West Side Park and Vicinity 40

Haledon Section of Paterson 41

Downtown Paterson 42

Downtown Paterson 43

Proposed Cross Sections of Streets 44

The Falls in Winter 46

Streets Less Than Sixty Feet Wide 48

Streets Over Seventy Feet Wide 48

Bridge Street Extension and Widening 49

Water Street Widening and Extension 50

Marshall Street Extension 51

Fallsway Memorial 52

Straight Street Widening 53

Market Street Widening 54

Boulevard Relocation and Widening 55

Morris and Essex Boulevard 57

York Avenue Extension and Widening 59

Madison Avenue Extension 60

East Fifth Street Extension 61

Fluctuations in Eastbound and Westbound Traffic 64

Vehicular Traff ic Streams, Main and Market Streets 65

Ellison Street Looking West from Colt Street 68

Vehicular Traffic Streams, Main and Van Houten Streets__ 71

Map of Paterson, 1840 73

Comparative Traffic Volumes on Different Streets 76

Washington Street Looking North from Market Street 77

Vehicular Traffic Streams, Main and Ellison Streets 79

Mai-ket Island 80

Main Street Looking North from Market Street 81

Major Street Plan (Facing) 82

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FIGURE 1.— The Falls.

(IIAl’TKR 1.

(’AI1SKS OF STREKT (ONOESTION IN PATERSON.

Defects in the Street Plan.

Street congestion in Paterson is due more
to innate defects in the street plan than to
the volume of traffic. The number of vehi-
cles, thoug’h large at many intersections, is
not so large as in itself to congest the streets
were it not for the fact that the streets them-
selves are ill-designed to meet traffic needs.

The difficulty can be traced back directly
to the original fathers of the city. Though
the men responsible for laying the founda-
tions of Paterson at first keenly felt the need
of a plan, and through the efforts of Alex-
ander Hamilton, at that time Secretary of the
Treasury, took steps to secure the services of
Major L’Enfant — who had just prepared
plans for what was to become the capital city
of the new country — to fomiulate plans for
the industrial center projected at the falls
of the Passaic, they felt that these plans
when submitted to them were entirely too
ambitious. And so it came about that though
Paterson might at the very start have com-
menced to direct its growth under a plan
evolved by America’s first great city plan-
ner, decided to do nothing. Thenceforth for
the next eighty years, the plan of the city
was left entirely in the hands of individual
land owners — whatever their whims or
caprice dictated determined the character of
the street plan for they, and they alone,
assumed all of the responsibility of subdivid-
ing the vacant farmlands into city streets
and building lots.

It was a most unfortunate circumstance
that all direction guiding the development of
the plan should have been removea at the
very infancy of the city for the areas laid
out in the eai’ly yeais were destined to be-
come the downtown business section of the
city as we know it today. The streets laid
out then are as a rule all too narrow; wide

streets feed into narrow ones; there are fi'e-
quent offsets and gaps without any streets
at all; it is not uncommon for streets to
change their direction without any apparent
reason.

Main Street, having a maximum width of
77 feet at Market Street, tapers until it has
a width of only 43 feet beyond Broadway.
North of Market Street, the east and west
streets are sufficiently frequent and direct
to care for traffic, but south of Market Street
there is no continuous, unbroken crosstown
street uninterrupted by the railroad or
Sandy Hill Park until Cedar Street is reached.
Main Street is the only through north and
south street in the entire business district.
Washington, Church, Bridge and Paterson
Streets, though narrow, would be admirable
through streets paralleling Main if they were
only through streets, but at the critical
points, they either break into offsets or come
to a dead stop. The result is that the
through traffic utilizing these north and
south streets is forced to utilize the east and
west streets to continue on its way through
the city. This, of course, unnecessarily con-
gests the traffic on the cross streets. Some
of these north and south streets, or rather
pieces of streets, change their direction six
or seven times, making awkward bends or
coming to an abrupt stop. The consequence
of this situation is that Main Street is over-
taxed — being the only continuous through
north and south street, it has to serve a dis-
proportionate amount of the downtown
traffic.

These earlier mistakes in street planning
were, to a large extent, avoided in the street
plan laid down for the outlying districts by
the Board of Aldermen, in 1870, upon what
is known as the “Coetschius Map”, a map
which established streets and blocks for all
the then unsubdivided areas within the city.

FIGURE 2. — Map of Paterson 1820. The earliest street map now extant. This is the plan Paterson deliberately
adopted in lieu of the comprehensive plan prepared by L’Enfant in 1792.

iUit luM-o a now diiriculty developed — that of
too much standardization. All streets weie
run in the same direction ii-respective of topo-
graphy. they were laid out of the same width
without I'eference to the needs of different
localities and the blocks were all made the
same width.

The a«-o-reo-ate street area of the city, if
consistently arranged along systematic lines
would more than suffice for all its traffic
requirements — future no less than present.
In the downtown section, where wide streets
are essential, only nari'ow ones have been
provided ; in the newer residence districts
where narrower streets would be adequate,
comparatively wide ones — that is streets 60
and 70 feet wide — come pretty near to being
the rule.

Such wide streets as the city has have
never been laid out with any all embracing
vision of the city’s needs as a whole. Here
and there may be an isolated wide street or
an isolated portion of a street that is wide,
but there is no system of wide streets. Each
wide street or portion of a wide street stands
by itself, un-related and unco-ordinated with
other wide streets with the consequence that
the usefulness of the increased width of such
wide streets as exist is greatly lost.

Broadway and Market Streets afford ex-
cellent illustrations of these anomalous con-
ditions. Broadway, with a width of 80 feet
east of East 18th Street narrows down to 66
feet between East 18th Street and Main
Street. For a distance west of Main Street
it is 60 feet wide but it ends with an outlet of
only 38 feet into Prospect Street. Market
Street with a width of 70 feet east of Madi-
son Avenue, is only 50 feet wide between
Madison Avenue and the Main Line of the
Erie. Then it suddenly widens out to 90 feet,
a width it maintains until Washington Street
is reached where it shrinks to 60 feet. Be-
yond Mill Street, however, it again returns to
a width of 50 feet.

Circumferential streets, the city has prac-
tically none at all. To go from any point on

the circumference of the city to any other
point on the circumference, it is necessaiy to
go thi'ough the center and then on out again.
The downtown section is not only the disti-i-
buting center for all the crosstown traffic no
matter where it originates or where it goes,
but it is also the distributing center for a
large portion of the interurban traffic.
Traffic from Little Falls to Ridgewood must
go through the downtown congested district,
congesting it still more, wasting its own time
as well as the time of other traffic because
there are no well established detours around
the business district. The same is true of
traffic originating in Pompton and destined
for Hackensack or of traffic going from Clif-
ton and Montclair to Suffern or from Hobo-
ken to Singac — all of it must penetrate into
the inner congested ring of the city to find
a road that will lead to its destination.

Railroad Grade Crossings.

Quite aside from their danger to life and
limb, the railroad grade crossings constitute
one of the greatest obstructions to the free
movement of traffic.

The railroads divide the city into six dis-
tinct sections. Traffic cannot, as a rule, go
from one section to another without passing
over at least one grade crossing and some-
times two or three^ — yes, even four or five.
The grade crossings are 53 in number. How
the free movement of traffic is interfered
with by the railroad crossings is well illus-
trated by the conditions at Market Street and
the Erie Station, one of the busiest traffic
points in the city.

On June 14, 1921, the gates at this crossing
were down 78 times for an aggregate period
of 71 minutes between the hours of 8:00 a. m.
and 6 :00 p. m. This is at the rate of one gate
between every seven and eight minutes. It
is the exceptional fifteen-minute pei'iod that
does not have at least one gate. During
some hours, the gates are down nine, ten and
even twelve times. No gate is down less
than thirty seconds; an exceptional one may

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FIGURE 3. — Map of Paterson 1835. The streets in Paterson were laid
the land wished to dispose of their property for buiiding lots.

out as and when the farmers who owned

ho down a hundrod seconds. The jiroat hulk
of the ti’afl’ic delayed is held up hetwoen 40
and 70 seconds. The avera{>'c o-ate is down
55 seconds. More than 13% of the total
trafTic usino- the street durino- the day is re-
tarded. The per cent, of the hourly traffic
interrupted ranges all the w'ay from 8.2% in
the hour between 3 and 4 to 18.8% in the
hour between 5 and 6. Considered by fifteen-
minute periods instead of by hours, the pro-
portion of traffic obstructed within the period
reaches a maximum of 38%. In some fifteen-
minute periods, the gates are closed more
than a fourth of the time. On the average,
at least twenty vehicles are obstructed every
fifteen minutes. Often the number reaches
thirty and forty. On occasions it even passes
sixty.

The burden imposed upon traffic by the
grade crossings is considerably greater than
that indicated by any traffic counts. Quite
irrespective of whether the gates are up or
down, the very presence of the grade cross-
ings retards all traffic using the streets.
Every vehicle upon approaching a crossing
usually slows down and many— street cars

for instance, invariably stop.

When much trafl'ic collects behind a closed
gate, it is not uncommon for the vehicles on
either side to occupy more than the half of
the roadway width to which they are en-
titled. Impatient to make a quick getaway,
the traffic marshalls itself upon a broad
front, sometimes the entire roadway width,
only to find its progress blocked upon the
opening of the gates by a like solid phalanx
of vehicles opposing it on the other side.
Then another wait ensues until the snarl in
the trafTic straightens itself out.

Every grade crossing disorganizes the sep-
aration so desirable between fast and slow
vehicles. In moving through the streets,
slow vehicles have their place next to the
curb, fast vehicles next to the center of the
street. But upon approaching a closed gate,
each vehicle takes its place in line without
reference to its speed. Several minutes may
elapse after the gates are lifted before traffic
can resume its noi'mal flow.

Many vehicles upon nearing a crossing will
race for it to anticipate the closing of the
gates and thus obviate the wait incident to a

TAHLP] 1 — TOTAL HOUllLY TRAFFIC RV KIND.
Market Street and Ei’ie Railroad.

«:0O A.

.M. to

• (>:00 P. M., June 14, 1

1021.

HOUR

8-!) 9-10

10-11

11-12

12-1 1-2

2-3

3-4

4-5

5-6

A—

TOTAl.

TRAFFIC

Total

Autos

289 348

357

376

393 352

290

323

424

482

3 634

Trucks

143 171

160

132

102 106

109

142

135

116

1 3 1 6

.litneys

57 20

51 42

4 8

398

Trolleys

30 26

35 26

322

Wagons

10 11

19 13

155

Total

535 576

585

588

600 539

482

561

664

695

5825

X 1

ot Total

R — TRAFFIC l)F

CAYFl)

RY RAILROAD

CATI

OS.

Trafl'ic

Autos

2 8 5 0

45 47 50

490

64.4

Trucks

. _ 18 24

1 1

9 11 15

154

20.2

.Jitneys

10 1

8 6 4

7.7

Trolleys

4 4

8 12

5.8

Wagons

4 1

— -

3—2

—

1.9

Total Relayed

64 80

73 65 73

4 6

114

131

761

1 00.0

I’ei' Cent, of Total H

rraffic 11.9 13.9

9.4

10.2

12.1 12.0 15.1

8.2

17.1

18.1

13.0

TRAFFIC DELAYED BY RAILROAD GATES

MARKET STREET AND ERIE RAILROAD

8AM 6 R M, JUNE: I4.iqgl

FIG. 4. TOTAL AND DELAYED TRAFFIC

J lESl
0

s-^v

wo OOOOOOOO.

it M « t r

■ o •

2 ig *) T iO\P f-«®

LENGTH OFDEL-AV
TO V E H 1 CUE S
FIG 6 .

CLOSED GATES
FIG. 7.

GATES WERE CLOSED

FIGURE 10.— The railroad gates on Market Street some- FIGURE 11.— Downtown Market Street has the generous
times hoid up as many as 60 vehicies in a fifteen minute width of 90 feet but at either end it is only 50 feet wide,
period.

passing train. That the specti'e of death
sometimes plays with such dare-devil at-
tempts is not enough to dissuade reckless
drivers from taking the chance; they would
risk life itself for the hilarious half mile they
might ride while the train is going past.

The Trolleys.

The congestion of traffic in the downtown
streets of Paterson, except in so far as it
owes its existence to innate shortcomings of
the street plan itself — such as too narrow
streets, the lack of sufficient through streets,
the absence of ti'affic cii'cuits around the
heart of the city and the presence of railroad
crossings — finds its chief source not so much
in the large number of vehicles using the
streets as in the improper routing of jitneys
and trolleys through the business district and
the utilization of all streets for the inu'king
of cars.

Four-fifths of the street mileage used by
trolleys is so narrow that it accommodates
but a single traffic unit on either side of the
car tracks. The result is that where vehicles
are parked alongside the curb, the traffic

must utilize the trolley space or stop.
When the cai’s slow down, the ti’affic
must slow down ; when the cars stop,
the traffic must stop — the streets are
too narrow to pei’init the two kinds of traffic
to proceed independently of each other.

The linear length of the trolley lines on
streets of different widths is shown in Table
JI.

Everyone of the twelve trolleys in the city
either uses or bisects the business portion of
Main Street. Two of the lines, the Broadway
and Park Avenue lines, operate as belt lines
entering and leaving Main Street at Broad-
way and Market Streets respectively. The
llaledon and Governor lines are through
routes and also operate through the busiest
section of Main Street. The four chief inter-
ui’ban lines, Hudson River, Ihissaic, Paterson
and Main, all use the Broadway loop. The
remaining foiu lines, Hawthorne, Riverside,
Singac and Totowa, use the City Hall loop.

The distance on Main Street from Broad-
way to Market is only three blocks. There
are but four intersecting streets in this
stretch — Broadway, Van Houten, Ellison and
Market. The trolleys stop at each of these

FIGURE 12. — A prohibited parking zone, but the cars
don’t know it.

four intersections. Turns in and out of
Main Street are made at all foui' of these
streets and at three the trolleys not only turn
on, but cross Main Street. At two intersec-
tions, Van Houten and Broadway, the trolleys
turn in two different directions.

The result of this incessant stopping, turn-
ing off and on, crossing over and looping

FIGURE 13. — While the railroad gates are down, all
traffic waits.

around Main Street, of course, results in con-
gestion. While the cars turn or cross Main
Street, all traffic waits; when the cars stop,
all traffic stops; and Petween the waits and
stops, all movement of traffic is slowed down
to a point where it bai ely crawls.

The fastest cars on Main Street sometimes
attain a speed of eleven miles an hour but

TABLE II. TROLLEY ROUTES ON STREETS OF DIFFERENT WIDTHS.

WIDTH OF STREET IX FEET

5 0

0 0

EEXOTH

OF TROlJiEY

ROUTES

IX FEE!

Single Track
Double Track

2,075

25,325

4,100

2,600

6,425

10,825

31,000

13,050

2,550

5,575

2,000

6,800

1,450

49,775

65,800

Total

Per cent.

2,075

1.8

20,125

25.5

2,600

2.2

17,250

14.0

31,0 00
27.6

15,600

13.5

5,575

4.8

0,700

8.4

1,450

1.3

115,575
1 00.4 4

FIGURE 14. — The railroads divide Paterson into six separate and distinct sections.

the slowest cars limp along at barely two
miles an hour. Within the same fifteen-
minute period, there is frequently a spread of
as much as eight or nine miles an hour in the
speed of the fastest and slowest trolley. It
is the exceptional fifteen-minute period in
which it does not take the slowest car on Main
Street twice as long a time to cover the same
ground as that traversed by the fastest.

The 846 trolleys, which either enteied or
left the city during the ten-hour ])eriod be-
tween 9:00 a. m. and 7 :00 p. m., November 8,
1921, made 799 turns at Broadway and xMain,
201 turns at Van Ilouten and Main, 248 turns

at Ellison and Main and 640 turns at Market
and Main — an aggregate of 1888 turns on
Main Street. On Washington Street, where
the cars turn in from Market and out at
Ellison, there were 574 turns more. The
aggregate number of turns on Main and
Washington Streets between Market and
Broadway was, therefore, 2,462. This is an
average of three turns per car.

The .lilneys.

There are twenty .jitney lines operating in
Paterson — eleven local lines and nine inter-

FIGURE 15. — Paterson would have an excellent system of radial streets if they were only sufficiently wide.

urban linos. Tlic local linos ti'ansi)ori about,
ono-hall' as many iiassoiifi'ors as iho ti'olloys.
In An.unst, 1921. the iraH'ic Tor tho local lines
totaled l.lUlIbbTt) passengers. This is the
equivalent of a daily averafie of (lOO passen-
o-ers per bus for each of the seventy-two jit-
neys operating' on the several lines. How
many passengers the suburban lines carried
is not ascertainable.

FIGURE 16. — The suburbs on the city’s fringe .Tre
growing more rapidiy than the city itseif.

The schedules of the local lines call for
1S91 single trips daily between the hours of
<S:b() a. m. and (!:()() p. m. 'I'he schedules for
the thirty-one internrban buses call for 194
single trips din ing the same ten-hour period.

The main difficulty with the jitneys, from
a traffic point of view, is that thei'e has been
no j)lan in laying out the different routes.
Each route appears to have been laid out with
sole reference to the wishes of the original
applicant for the route privilege. That each
local line has done its best to penetrate into
the congested district is evidenced by the fact
that every one of them either uses or crosses
that part of Main Street between Broadway
and Market.

Two of the local lines use stub end tei-
minals ; the other nine local lines come into
the downtown section, loop and go out again.
Each of these lines makes its own loop. The
internrban lines use four more loops so that
in all there are no less than thirteen separate
and distinct different jitney loops in the
l)usiness district. The result of all these
loops is that the jitneys turn at practically
every street intersection. At some of the
downtown intersections, as at Ellison and
Washington, the jitneys turn in four differ-
ent directions.

There are sixteen street intersections in
the area bounded by Main, Market, Church
and Broadway. At present every one of
these intersections, except the one at Church
and Broadway is used for a jitney turn.
Altogether, the jitneys make thirty different
turns at these fifteen street intersections, a
single turn lieing made at five intersections,
two turns at seven intersections, three turns
at one intersection and four turns at two
intersections.

The result of this ciiaotic arrangement of
the jitney routes is iieedless congestion and
nobodv SLifl'ers more from it than the patrons
of the jitnevs and the jitneys themselves.

Parking.

The jiarking (piestion has become, within

FIGURE 17. — Madison Avenue, one of the city’s most
important thoroughfares is cut in two at Eliison Street.

the last few years, one of the most aggra-
vated traffic problems. Cars must be parked,
and parked conveniently to the destination of
the people using them but whei’e to ])ark
them except in the streets where they de-
prive other vehicles of the facility of using
the streets is a problem which no city has
solved satisfactorily.

Whether a particular space in the roadway
shall be occupied by a standing or by a mov-
ing vehicle is not the question. Nor is it a
question of whether a given vehicle shall be
allowed to stand or be forced to move. It
is much broader than either of these alter-
natives for in the more acute cases it squarely
presents the issue whether standing vehicles
shall be permitted to drive moving vehicles
entirely off the streets.

A vehicle has as much right to stop as it
has to move but its right to stand in the
streets is not equal to its right to circulate.
The purpose of a street is to serve as a high-
way, not as a storage yard. To permit vehi-
cles to stand in the streets as long as they
might choose results, where there is a con
siderable amount of traffic, in barricading
the streets to all ti'affic. To make parking
s])aces of streets none too wide to care for
circulating traffic must inevitably result in
diverting traffic to other streets where it can

FIGURE 18. — These cheap wooden buildings are the
only obstruction preventing Madison Avenue from becom-
ing a continuous crosstown street.

move more freely.

The maximum number of cars parked in
the business district at one time during the
day is ordinarily between 12.00 p. m. and 1.00
p. m. when it sometimes is as high as 700
cars. Many cars are parked in the streets
the entire day. On secondary streets, this
is of minor importance but when cars park
on Main Street for five and six hours, the
consequences are too serious to ignore.

Main Street is THE retail street and is
dependent as no other downtown street for
its business upon the volume of traffic. Any-
thing that detracts from Main Street’s acces-
sibility to the buying public is a direct stab
at its business prestige; anything that in-
creases the number of people frequenting the
street tends to enhance its potential oppor-
tunities for business.

Out of the 235 cars pai’ked on the single
block on Main Street between Ellison and
Van Ilouten Streets during the ten hours
from 8:00 a. m. to 6:00 p. m., on June 20,
1921, ten cars stood at the curb for periods
varying from over two hours to six hours and
five minutes. The total parked car hours for
the 235 cars was one hundred thirty hours
and forty-five minutes ; that for the ten cars
parked more than two hours, thirty-three
hours and twenty-seven minutes. The aver-

FIGURE 19. — Distribution of population, Paterson and vicinity 1920. Each dot represents 100 people.

age parked time for all cars was thirty-three
minutes per car; foi’ cars parked over two
hours, three hours and twenty minutes per
car. The cars parked over two hours, though
they constituted only 4.2 per cent, of the total
cars parked in the block, consumed 28.7 per
cent, of the total vehicle hours parked liy all
the cars.

More than half of the machines parked
were jiai'ked for less than fifteen minutes.
Seven-tenths were parked for less than half
an hour. Only one machine in seven parked
longer than one hour. Yet the machines
parked more than an hour consumed 55 per
cent, of the total time parked by all the
machines.

, . . ^ ^ FIGURE 21. — The railroad gates at Market Street are

FIGURE 20. — Some cars park on the busiest streets all down once every seven minutes during the day.
day long.

TABLE III.

PARKED CARS

Main Street Between

Ellison and Van

Houten Streets

<S:00 a. in. to 6

:00 p. m., June

20, 1921.

Time Parked

Machines

Per

Parked Time

Per

( Minutes)

Number

Cent.

Minutes

Cent,

1 — 5

11.1

106

1.4

6 — 10

35.8

792

10.1

11 — 15

7.2

229

2.9

16 — 2 0

8.9

402

5.1

21-- 25

26 — 30

7.2

503

6.5

SI— 4 0

8.2

687

8.7

41— 5 0

5.1

566

7.2

51 — 60

1.7

235

3.0

61 — 90

6.0

1064

13.5

91- 120

3.8

972

12.4

121 plus

4.2

2247

28.7

Total

235

100.0

7845

100.0

At its busiest point, between Ellison and
Van IJouten Sti'eets, Main Street passes an
averag-e of 2.25 vehicles per minute per
traffic unit of roadway width during the
maximum traffic hour. With a double track
trolley in the center, its roadway width,
if free of all obstiaictions at the cuih, readily
passes one traffic unit on either side of the

car tracks, but with vehicles parked at the
side, all traffic is forced onto the tracks.
Every machine parked for an hour elbows 135
vehicles out of their alignment, but the an-
noyance suffered by traffic exceeds the em-
barrassment to the machines hourly thrown
upon the ti’olley tracks by the parked cars.
One-half of the roadway width, and that the

li)

most oiroctivo half so far as ordinary vehi-
cular trairic is coucei'ued, is c*onii)lotoly par-
alyzed so that trairic reqiiirinji' two roadway
units for its free movement is forced into
one where it must fall into an agoniziny
<ioose-step behind trolleys which, through a
series of jerks and starts sometimes manag’e

to cover oidy two or thi'ee miles an luair.
The combined I’esult of these dilferent factors
oi)eratinj? tojjether is that the traffic aionj.':
Main Street often backs up and fills the stieet
not only to the first but even the second and
third cross street to the rear.

TABLE IV.

TYPICAL SAMPLES OF ‘•PARKINC HOCS”

Main Street Between Ellison and Van Houten Streets
8:00 a. in. to 6:00 p. ni., June 20, 1021
Time of Arrival Time of Departure Parked Time

9:15

11:35

Hours

Minutes

2 0

9:40

11:55

10:30

12:56

2 6

11:35

2:05

11:45

5:50

12:25

5:45

12:30

4:00

1:35

5:05

2:15

5:00

4 5

3:15

5:56

Total I’arking Time for Above 10 Cars 23 27

Average Parking Time Per Car 3 2 0

CHAPTER II.

REGULATING TRAFFIC TO RELIEVE STREET CONGESTION.

I. — Changing Character of Traffic.

Very few traffic counts are available to
enable one to compare present day congestion
in Paterson with that of past years. The
only clockings in existence are those made in
connection with the grade crossing case be-
fore the Supreme Court in 1913. Although
these counts were all made at points v.'here
streets cross the Main Line of the Erie Rail-
road, they are indicative of the general
traffic condition existing throughout the city
at that time.

Fig. 22 is a comparative study of the hourly
traffic at Market Street and the Erie Railroad
in 1913 and 1921.

This diagram shows that the total traiTic
during the eight years has more than doubled.
In 1913, the horse-drawn vehicles still ex-
ceeded the automobiles in number. Today
the automobile traffic alone is greater than
the street traffic in 1913. The motor truck
entirely unknown in 1913 is now more numer-
ous than was the automobile eight years ago.
The number of trolleys has remained about
constant, the increase in traffic being-
taken up by the jitneys, a means of ti'ans-
portation that has been entirely developed
during the past eight years. The jitney
traffic on Market Street today, in fact, ex-
ceeds the ti'olley traffic. The only kind of
ti-affic that has diminished is the horse-draw)i
traffic, the number of wagons and cai'riages
being today less than one-half as numerous
as the street cars of 1913.

One minute a street may be jammed with
vehicles; the next comparatively bare of
traffic. Traffic seems to come in waves — it
is seldom uniformly even in its flow. The
traffic of one fifteen-minute pei’iod as con-
ti-asted with a succeeding one frecpiently
varies twenty or thirty per cent., sometimes
a hundied pei- cent., and occasionally even

two or three hundred per cent.

The volume of traffic is constantly fluctuat-
ing; it varies every minute of the day. And
yet the flow of traffic in different streets
taken by hours is surprisingly constant be-
tween the hours of 8:00 a. m. and 6:00 p. m.
As a rule, during this period, the traffic
volume of the maximum hour exceeds the
flow of the average hour by approximately
the same amount that the traffic volume of
the average hour exceeds the flow of the
minimum hour. In either case, the plus or
minus above or below the average traffic hour
is about 16 per cent. In other words, the
total spread between the busiest and quietest
hour is equal to about 32 per cent, of the
volume of the average traffic hour. The total

FIGURE 22. — The automobile truck and jitney were
both unknown in 1913.

TAHLK V.

HOURLY NUMRKR OF VKHK'LKS AT DIFFKRKNT INTERSECTIONS.

HOUR Total

1921

8-9

A. M.

9-10 10-11

1 1-12

12-1

Total

1-2 2-3

Vehicles

3-4

4-5

5-6

P. M.

Vehicles

Market and Main, Aug. 15

471

536

584

585

54 3

593

639

573

554

556

5634

Van Houten and Main, .June 2 3

494

550

559

576

530

440

473

426

455

481

4984

IVIain, B’way and West, Aug. G

434

482

516

549

486

606

595

594

616

5473

Paterson and B’way, Aug. 11
Bridge, Church and Broad-

501

587

5G4

610

520

647

597

506

588

571

5691

way, June 13

482

589

576

623

573

611

578

611

583

657

5883

B’way and Erie R. R., June 13

331

348

336

319

334

424

352

305

279

346

3374

Market and Ei ie R. R., June 14

535

57G

585

588

600

539

482

561

664

695

5825

hourly number of all kinds of vehicles at
typical street intersections is shown in Table

The proportion of through traffic to cross
traffic differs at every intersection. As
through traffic is defined as the traffic on the
street utilized by the larger number of vehi-
cles, it is, of course, always gi’eater than the
cross traffic. In extreme cases, as at Van
Houten and Main Streets, this disproportion
between through and cross traffic may be as
high as twelve to one. At the ordinary down-
town intersection on Broadway and Main
Streets, about one-half of the total traffic is
through traffic; one-seventh cross traffic;

one-sixth traffic turning to the right, and one-
sixth traffic turning to the left. The per
cent, of traffic taking different directions at
typical intersections is shown in Table VI.

The relative congestion at different street
intersections is exceedingly difficult to ap-
praise not only for the reason that different
vehicles obstruct traffic in varying degrees
but because their obstructiveness varies with-
in a wide range under different conditions.
Were the size, speed and flexibility of vehi-
cles the only factors entei'ing into their ob-
structiveness to traffic, then each type of
vehicle, whether it were an automobile, a
truck, a trolley car or a wagon, could be

TABLE VI.

PER CENT OF TRAFFIC TAKIN(; DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS.

Tlnoiigh

Main and Market 34

Main and Van llonten 71

Main and Ellison Gl

liroadway and Paterson 18

Broadway, Bridge and Cluiicli 38

Cross

Riglit 'rurn

Belt

2 6

1 5

2 3

FLOW OF TRAFFIC

MAIN & INTERSECTING STREETS

8 A M. - 6 P.M. TYPICAL DAY, AUGUST 1921
scale: - relative number of vehicles

“ DlACf^AM SHOVYS PROPORTIONATE NUMBER OP VEHICLES PASSING DiPFERCNT
POINTS ON THE BASIS OF 1000 PASSING MAIN STREET BETWEEN VAN HOUTEN
& ELLISON STREETS IN BOTH DIRECTIONS. TO ASCERTAIN EXACT NUMBER OF VEHICLES
AT ANY GIVEN POINT MULTIPLY FIGURE G'VEN BY 4.E

TOTAL TRAFFIC

STREET PLAN

FIGURE 23. — Note that more traffic turns east from
Street. Compare the relative complexity of the traffic
one-way traffic.

Main Street into Market than continues south on Main
movement at different intersections and the effect of

H'iven a weipht in proportion to its ohstruct-
inft' character. Tliis would enable one to
compute the volume of tralfic in terms of
ol)structin{>- units, thus reducin}>: traffic con-
ditions at different street intersections to the
same common denominator each comparable
with the other.

Rut the subject is far too complex to ad-
mit of any such ready solution. The very
same vehicle movino- in a different direction
or over different terrain may increase oi’ de-
crease its obstructive character. Obviously
a vehicle paralleling- the main line of travel
obstructs traffic less than one cutting across
it at right angles ; a vehicle tuning to the right
retards movement less than one turning to
the left ; a vehicle negotiating an obtuse angle
holds back traffic less than one negotiating
an acute angle; a vehicle crossing a narrow
street occupies the space within the intersec-
tion a shorter time than one crossing a wide
street; a vehicle traveling over level ground
demands less headway than one descending
a steep hill.

II. — The Separation of Fast and Slow Tralfic.

There is probably nothing that retards the
free movement of traffic more than an inter-
mingling of fast and slow vehicles. The
speed of the slowest vehicle tends to become
the speed of all the vehicles using a street.
The twenty-mile-an-hour vehicle cannot tra-
vel faster than the five-mile-an-hour vehicle
in front of it. Promiscuously mixed traffic
invariably results in street congestion.

With the advent of the automobile, the
variation in speed has spread over a wide
]-ange. For horse-drawn vehicles, it ranges
from 3 to 9 miles an hour; for motor vehicles
up to 50 miles an hour. The fastest horse-
drawn vehicle travels al)out three times as
fast as the slowest. The fastest automobile,
on the other hand, travels about twenty times
as fast as the slowest horse-drawn vehicle.
The intermixtui-e of fast and slow vehicles
causes congestion — the slow vehicles prevent

the fast ones from clearing off freely. Each
possible opening in the jam invites the fastei-
vehicles to attempt dangerous passages in
and out among the slow ones.

Even though a commercial vehicle may not
obstruct pleasure traffic on account of its
speed, it may do so on account of its size.
Many of the motor trucks manufactui-ed to-
day have an excessive width. They are so
wide that instead of occupying six or seven
feet of roadway width, they occupy eight or
nine. Such a vehicle, in other words, mono-
polizes a space equal to that used by two nor-
mal traffic units. The disastrous effect of
these vehicles on the free movement of traf-
fic in a street used primarily by fast traffic is
obvious. The presence of even a few such
vehicles has the same effect as a narrowing
of the I'oadway width.

If these wide vehicles are also slow vehi-
cles, and this is generally the case, their
effect upon street congestion is doubly bad;
they not only reduce the effective width of
roadway but they also reduce the speed of all
traffic. All vehicles in passing such a truck
are obliged to go out of their alignment. If
the street has a traffic capacity of three units
in either direction, and the truck itself con-
sumes two of the three, there will lie a space
between the truck and the center of the street
for but one traffic unit. With two or three
lines of fast traffic eager to get through a
space having a width adequate for but one
line of traffic, the effect is not only fatal to all
speed in movement but actually dangerous to
life and limb.

No attempt is made in the downtown sec-
tion of Paterson to separate the slow from
the fast traffic. This is responsible, to no
small degree, for many of the traffic jams
afflicting the downtown streets. The num-
ber and per cent, of different kinds of vehicles
making up the traffic at different points is
shown in Table VII.

Segregating different kinds of traffic on
different streets makes them safer for both
pedestrians and vehicles. The mingling of

- ^

VEHICULAR TRAFFIC STREAMS i

BROADWAY, BRIDGE & CHURCH STREETS

8 A M - 6 P M AUGUST 19,1981

SCALE - VEHICLES

p ■ M ■"!

0 500 1000

INTERSECTION

FIGURE 24. — An offset intersection of streets reduces the traffic capacity of both streets; first, by necessi-
tating a longer path through the intersection; and second, by requiring all cross traffic to make two turns within
the intersection.

TAIJLK VII.

KINDS OF VKIIH’LES AT DIFFERENT INTERSECTIONS.

■Autos

'I’nicks

.Jitneys Trolleys

Nu 111 her

Wagons

Total

Market aiui Main

25!)4

1124

660

1 1 03

153

5634

Van Honten and Main _ —

insf)

1182

647

1131

4982

Ellison and Main ( lialf day)

94 5

447

379

667

2498

IMain. Rroadway and West

2249

1369

566

1 077

218

5473

Paterson and Rioadway

2882

1838

160

470

341

5691

■Rridge, Church and Proad\vay_

2885

1588

503

679

228

5883

Broadway and Erie R. R.

1906

681

1 82

490

115

3374

Market and Erie R. R.

36.S4

1316

398

Per

322

cent.

155

5825

Market and Main

46.1

20.0

11.8

19.6

2.5

100.0

Van Hoiiten and Main

39.2

23.8

13.0

22.7

1.3

100.0

Ellison and Main (half day)

37.6

17.8

15.4

26.8

2.4

100.0

Main, Broadway and West

40.0

25.5

10.4

20.0

4.1

100.0

Paterson and Broadway

50.7

32.3

2.8

8.2

6.0

100.0

Bridge, Church and Broadway-

49.0

27.0

8.6

11.6

3.8

100.0

Broadway and Erie R. R.

56.5

20.2

5.4

14.5

3.4

100.0

Market and Erie R. R.

62.5

22.6

6.8

5.5

2.6

100.0

different kinds of traffic on the same street
confuses iDoth the driver and the man on
foot. Pedestrians crossing a roadway can
allow for a steady stream of vehicles passing
at an even speed. They can allow for slow
traffic when all the vehicles are slow. They
can allow for fast traffic when all the vehi-
cles are fast. But traffic of an intermittent
type catches the pedestrian off his guard.
This is clearly demonstrated by the large
number of persons struck down by fast vehi-
cles when passing behind of or in front ol
a slow vehicle. When crossing the roadway
behind a standing or slow moving vehicle,
the pedestrian is knocked down by a fast
vehicle comming in the opposite direction.
When crossing the roadway in front of a
stationary or slow moving vehicle, he is
trapped by a fast vehicle traveling in the
same direction.

III. — Parking.

In approaching the subject of pai'king, it
is well to remember that people must park
their cars ; that they must park them as con-
veniently to their destination as possible ; and
that the length of time they may park must

be as variable as the length of time it takes
them to perform their several errands. Many
people will wish to park a few minutes ; some
several hours ; others all day ; but whether the
time is short or long, they must be enabled
to park somewhere not too far from their
destination.

It is not to be assumed, however, that
eveiybody has a right to park wherever he
chooses or for as long a time as he pleases.
When the public is embarrassed more than
the individual is convenienced, then the privi-
lege must be cuidailed. On some streets, it
may have to be limited to a short iieriod ; on
others entirely prohibited. As the popula-
tion and business in a community increase, its
parking regulations will have to be revised —
the parking time limits reduced, and the i)ro-
hibited zones enlarged until finally machines
will, in a large i)ortion of the downtown
l)usiness area, be allowed to stop merely for
a sufficient time to pick up and discharge
passengers.

When that time ai'rives, parking spaces
must be provided off the public streets. To
a degree the need may be met by commercial
gai’ages ; private parking spaces ; or i)erhaps

VEHICULAR TRAFFIC STREAMS

MAIN, BROADWAY & WEST STREETS

8 A.M - 6 P.M AUGUST 16,1931

SCALE - VEHICLES

PLAN OF
INTERSECTION

BROADWAY

FIGURE 25. — A five street intersection greatly complicates the movement of traffic. Where four streets inter-
sect, twelve directions are open to traffic; where five streets intersect, this number is increased to twenty.

by depni-tment stores and other larj>-e ownei’s
of delivery trucks placinjj' their private
ag'es at the service of tlieir customers. Al-
though these efforts are all very laudatory
and in some instances appreciably help to fill
the need, they do not fill the whole need.
Many persons cannot afford to store their
cars in commercial garages, even though they
pay only one fee per day for the privilege.
Others, able to pay a single fee per day are
in and out of their shops and offices so many
times a day, that were they to pay a fee each
time that they withdraw their car, the cost
would amount to a very pretty penny each
year. Garages owned by department stores
and placed during the day at the disposal of
customers do not, of course, reach that large
part of the public which does not shop every
day.

Viewed solely from the interests of moving
traffic, all parking should be prohibited on
Main Street. Such a rule would, however,
at the present time appear to be needlessly
drastic. It would unquestionably increase
the traffic capacity of Main Street. But in
depriving all vehicles of the right to stand at
the curbs, even for short periods of time, it
would prove a serious blow to retail business.

The real parking problem on Main Street
is how to confine the parking privilege to
shoppers while excluding non-shoppers. IIow
to allow those who are especially convenienced
by parking on Main Street to park there
while prohibiting those who are not particu-
larly inconvenienced by parking elsewhere
from parking there is an object which can
probably be best achieved by limiting the
parking privilege on Main Street. A one-half
hour time limit on Main Street, with longer
or no time limits on othei' streets, would at
one stroke remedy one of the worst abuses
of the parking privilege of this street — it
would put an end to half day and all day
parking. Limiting the parking privilege on
Main Street to thirty minutes would almost
quadioiple the number of cars able to pai'k
on this street.

A large part of the downtown congestion in
Paterson is due to machines cruising around
in seai’ch of a place to park. Kveiy day
many people wishing to stop on Main Street
are forced to park their cars several blocks
away because the space that should be re-
served for them is monopolized for hours at
a time by the cars of non-shoppers. In some
cases, these cars are owned by shop keepers
who are so thoughtless as not to realize that
by parking in front of their premises, they
barricade their stores to prospective cus-
tomers.

The distance an owner may reasonably be
expected to walk to his destination after
parking his car varies more or less in the
same ratio as the time it takes to perform his
errand. If his errand is quickly performed,
he will wish to park immediately in front of
the premises; if his errand is a long one, he
will still, of course, wish to park in front of
the premises, but where this is impossible,
he may be induced to park at a proportion-
ately greater distance. This distance in a
city like Paterson does not at the outside limit
much exceed a quarter of a mile or the equiv-
alent of a five-minute walk. If a parking-
space, either in the street or elsewhere, is
not available within a five minute walk of
one’s destination, the advantage of proceed-
ing thence in a car as against a trolley or
jitney is largely lost.

Conditions have not, as yet, come to such a
pass in Paterson that one cannot park within
a five minutes’ walk of his destination. Even
when traffic is most congested, ample park-
ing space is to be found south of Smith Street,
west of Pi-ospect Street, east of the Erie Rail-
road or north of Fair Street. But traffic is
growing .so fast that it seems wise for the
city to acquire public pai-king spaces on the
fringes of the business area while they are
still obtainable at reasonable prices. To
widen streets to provide additional space for
parked cars is unthinkable. It is entirely
too expensive. To buy exclusive parking-
spaces is much cheaper.

FIGURE 26. — Parked cars take up more roadway space in some streets than do moving cars. Note the con-
gestion of parked cars on the busiest streets while the streets immediately to one side are comparatively unused.

These public parking spaces should be ac-
quired at strategic points where the half day
and all day cars could be parked without
entering and congesting the business district.
In other words, they should be purchased out-
side of the area bounded by Broadway, Main,
Market and the Erie Railroad. The amount
of land acquired should be determined with
a view to accommodating all vehicles parked
I'oi' more than an hour so that all the down-
town streets, insofar as parking is permitted
on them, can be reserved exclusively for the

use of shoppers.

Except on the south side of Market Street,
cars are ranked in Paterson, that is, the
length of the car parallels the curb. On
Market Street, however, the width of the
street admits of cars being parked on one
side and ranked on the other.; that is, on one
side the length of the car is at light angles
to the curb ; on the other side, parallel to the
curb. On the parked side, the cars are in-
variably backed into place. Parking has the
very distinct advantage over ranking in that

the same street lenjith accoinniodales ai)i)rox-
iniately double the mimber of vehicles. At
the rate at which trad'ic is increasinjr, it is
only a question of time how soon the parking’
of cars on kTarket Street will have to be dis-
continued for ranking’ but as long’ as the cars
are parked, they should be parked with the
front rather than the rear next to the curb.
It is much easier to drive into than to
back into a space between two cars.

The present prohibited parking’ zones are
very indifferently enforced. And yet these
zones should be extended as soon as possible.
Among the suggested additions are ;

(1) — Main Street between Broadway and
Van Houten, east side.

(2) — Market Street between Main and
Union, both sides.

(3) — Broadway between Main and Wash-
ington, both sides.

(4) — Ellison Street between Main and
Washington, both sides.

( 5 ) — Van Houten Street between Main and
Washington, both sides.

(6) — Park Avenue, between Main Line,
Erie R. R. and Carroll Street, both sides.

Park Avenue, because of its narrowness
and occupancy by a double track trolley pre-
sents a unique problem. Cars parked at a
distance from the curb as well as wide trucks
frequently create a condition that completely
blocks all trolley traffic. Until the curbs are
set back, as suggested elsewhere in this re-
port, making the I’oadway 32 feet wide so
that trolleys will be given an unobstructed
]’ight of way, whether cars are or are not
parked at the curb, all parking on Park Ave-
nue should be prohibited from the Main Line
of the Erie liailroad to Cari’oll Street.

In some cases, the narrowness of the
streets, in other cases, the amount of trolley
traffic make these enlargements to the pro-
hibited zones desirable.

IV.— 4holley Stops.

The northbound trolleys on Main Street
average a stop every fifty-three seconds dur-

ing the day at Bi’oadway. A few stops may
last Cor sevei’al seconds, but some continue
for thirty, forty or fifty seconds. Quite fi’e-
quently a car does not make its getaway until
the car following it has pulled up. Then one
stop merges with another, sometimes with
two, three or four others. In this way,
traffic may be blocked at a single time for
nearly a couple of minutes.

Some hours the trolley stops at Broadway
and Main aggregate thirty minutes. This
is fifty per cent, of the time. The average
throughout the day is thirty per cent.

The trolley stops at Main and Broadway,
though more frequent and prolonged in their
duration than at other intersections, are
illustrative of the effect of all trolley stops
upon street traffic. The trolley stops in the
downtown section are altogether too numer-
ous — they are too numerous to permit the
best operation of the trolleys; they are too
numerous to give the public the best trolley
sei’vice; they are so numerous as seriously
to retard the movement of all street ti’affic.
For these reasons, the relocation of all trolley
stops in the congested district must be re-
viewed.

Fig. 30 presents a program for the elimina-
tion of all unnecessary stops and the estab-
lishment of such new ones as the convenience
of the trolleys demand.

V. — Re-routing of Trolleys and .Jitneys.

To relieve the congestion of street traffic
caused by the trolleys and jitneys in the
downtown section, it is necessai’y:

1. — To cut out all superfluous turning from
one street into another.

2. — To make as many of the necessary
tui’ns as possible on sti’eets other than Main
Street.

3. — To curtail the number of stops to the
minimum number that will adequately serve
the passengers carried.

4. — To reduce the distance travelled by the
several lines in the downtown section to the
minimum requirements demanded by the

FIGURE 27. — Eliminating the superfluous loops and
stops will reduce the time in passing through the business
district.

several routes.

5. — To eliminate all unnecessary transfers
by securing a better adaptation of routes to
the service demanded ; that is, by routing as
many passengers as possible through, with-
out change of car or jitney, from point of
origin to point of destination.

The program deemed best suited to carry
out these objects include:

1. — The through-routing of as many of the
trolley and jitney lines as practicable;

2. — The abandonment of all looping,
whether of trolleys or jitneys, in the area
between Broadway, Main, Market and the
Main Line of the Erie; and

3. ^ — The establishment of loops outside the
area bounded by Broadway, Main, Market and
the Main Line of the Erie for such lines as
it may prove impracticable to through-route.

At the very start, let it be said that routing
the jitneys and trolleys through from one
side of the city to another need not disturb
the present arrangements regarding the fare
charged. A second fare may be collected in
either case after the business district has
l)een passed through.

No suggestion is made in this report
relative to a segregation of the jitney and
trolley lines on separate streets in the resi
deuce districts. The only changes recom-
mended as to routes are those which will

FIGURE 28. — Note the wide divergence in the time
consumed by the trolleys on the two sides of the street.

promote a better arrangement of traffic with-
in the congested district.

Features of Proposed Plan.

The re-routing plans herewith suggested
would entirely do away with the Broadway
and City Hall trolley loops. The cars that
cannot be routed through the city from one
side to another, will be routed around the loop
bounded by Market Street, Railroad Avenue,
Grand Street and Main Street. This loop,
which is hereafter referred to as the Grand
Street loop, is considerably larger than either
the Broadway or City Hall terminal loops.
It is for that reason less susceptible of being
congested. It is also off the most travelled
portion of Main Street. The lines routed
over this loop would be the Passaic, Paterson,
Totowa and part of the Hawthorne.

The Singac trolley line would be joined with
the Hawthorne line and made a through
route. The Riverside and Main lines would
also be joined and routed as a single line. The
Hudson River line would be left undisturbed,
except that after crossing Main Street at
Broadway, it would not go around the loop
but instead of this, it would switch back and
go out over its route again. The .Broadway,
Park Avenue, Haledon and Governor lines
would be left as at present.

FIGURE 29. — Present trolley stops. Too frequent stops
not only retard the speed of the trolleys but blockade
traffic.

The local jitney lines would all be made
into through lines with the exception of the
Broadway line. The suburban lines would be

left substantially as at present with the ex-
ception of the Montclair-Newark line, which
would not be allowed to cross Market Street.

PRESENT ROUTES AND PROPOSED RE-ROUTINOS.
1. — Trolley Lines.

Proposed :

Singac-IIawthorne Line.

Market, Main, Broadway, Bridge.

Hawthorne Line (short route.)

Broadway, Main, Market, Railroad, Grand.
Main.

Riverside-Main Line.

Bridge, Broadway, Main.

Present :

Singac Line.

Market, City Hall Loop, Ellison.

Hawthorne Line.

Broadway, Main, City Hall Loop.

Hawthorne Line.

(See above.)

Riverside Line.

Bridge, Bioadway, Main, City Hall Loop,
Main.

Main Line.

Main, Broadway Ix)op, Main.

Paterson Line.

Main, Market, Railroad, Grand, Main.
Passaic Line.

Grand, Main, Market, Railroad.
Totowa Line.

Main, Market, Railroad, Grand, Main.

Hudson River Line.

Broadway, switch back to Broadway.

Broadway Line.

No change.

Park Avenue Line.

No change.

Paterson Line.

Main, Broadway Loop, Main.

Passaic Line.

Railroad, Market, Main, Grand.

Totowa Line.

Main, City Hall Loop, Main.

Hudson River Line.

Broadway, Broadway Loop, Main, Broad-
way.

Governor Line.
No change.

2. — .Jitneys.

Main-Riverside Line.

River, Bridge, Broadway, Church, Market,
Clark, Smith, Main.

Hawthorne-Beech and Clay Line.

Bridge, Broadway, Church, Ellison,
Straight.

Haledon-Governor Line.

West, Broadway, Washington, Ellison,
Straight, Van Houten, Carroll.

Totowa-Park Avenue Line.

West, Broadway, Washington, Market,
Paik Avenue.

Main Line.

Main, Van Houten, Prospect, Ellison, Main.
Riverside Line.

River, Bridge, Broadway, Washington, Elli-
son, Main, Broadway.

Hawthorne Line.

Bridge, Broadway, Washington, Ellison,
Colt, Market, Washington, Ellison, Main,
Broadway.

Beech and Clay Line.

Straight, Park, Market, Washington,
Broadway, Main, Market.

Plaledon Line.

West, Main, Van Houten, Church, Market,
Ei-ie Station, out Market.

Govei'nor Line.

Broadway, Washington, Ellison, Colt, Mar-
ket, Union, Smith, Hamilton, Ward, Main,
Grand, Main, Broadway.

Totowa Line.

West, Main, Market, Washington, Plllison,
Main.

2 !)

Sin.^’ac-Markct Line.
kTarket from Spruce to Dundee Lake.

IL'oadway Line.

Broadway, Church, Ellison, Washington,
Broadway.

Bloomfield Line.

Main, Smith, Clark, Ward, Main.

Montclair-Newark Line.

Main, Smith, Clark, Ward, Main.

Ridgewood Line.

Van Houten, Church, Ellison.

Butler Line.

No change.

Midvale Line.

No change.

Greenwood Lake Line.

No change.

Boonton Line.

No change.

Riverdale Line.

No change.

Oakland Line.

No change.

Advantages of the Proposed Plan.

Through-routing will enable people to
travel from one side of the city to another
without transferring to another bus or trol-
ley. Through-routing will speed up the oper-
ation of both the jitneys and the trolleys.
The jitneys, being removed from the trolley
blockades on Main Street, will ti’avel faster;
and the trolleys, having Main Street to them-
selves, free from inter fei'ence by the jitneys,
will also travel faster. The elimination of

Park Avenue fane.

Park, Market, Washington, Broadway,
Main, Market.

Singac Line.

Market, Washington, Ellison.

Market Street Line.

Straight, Park, Market to Prospect.

Broadway Line.

Broadway, Washington, Ellison, Colt, Mar
ket. Main, Broadway.

Bloomfield Line.

Main, Market to Clark, back by same I'oute.

Montclair-Newark Line.

Main, Ward, Hamilton, Market, Washing-
ton, Ellison, Church, Market, Union, Smith,
Ward, Main.

Ridgewood Line.

Van Houten, Washington, Ellison, Church,
Van Houten.

numerous turns will accelerate the passage of
both trolleys and jitneys through the con-
gested business district.

Through-routing will reduce street con-
gestion.

Under the proposed plan, only eight of the
sixteen street intei’sections in the area bound-
ed by Main, Market, Church and Broadway
will be used for jitney turns, all turns being-
abandoned at the following intei'sections :
Main and Van Houten, Main jind Ellison,
Main and Market, Hamilton and Market,

FIGURE 31. — Per cent, of traffic delayed by trolleys.
Broadway and Main Streets, November 3, 1921.

FIGURE 32. — Length of traffic delays caused by trolleys.
Broadway and Main Streets, November 3, 1921.

Washing-ton and Van Houten, Colt and Mar-
ket, Colt and Ellison. But one new turn will
be created, that at Church and Broadway.
The present jitney schedule for a normal ten-

intersections be considered instead of merely
the jitneys turning, a still more favorable
result is obtained. Under the present jitney
schedule 11,103 jitneys pass through these 16

TABLE VIII.

Jitney Traffic at Different Street Intersections Downtown Paterson.

8:00 A. M. to 6:00 P. M. Typical Day, August, 1921.

Intersections.

Broadway and Main

Van Houten and Main

Ellison and Main

Market and Main

Hamilton and Market

Union. Mai ket and Washington

Ellison and Washington

Washington and Van Houten__

Washington and Broadway

Colt and Market

Colt and Ellison

Church and Market

Ellison and Church

Church and Van Houten

Clark and Market

Broadway and Church

Total

Jitney Turns.

Jitneys Passing.

Present

Proposed

Present

Proposed

Plan.

895

371

891

371

225

—

1039

—

458

—

1154

—

442

—

942

608

515

196

943

278

632

246

793

442

628

442

539

442

917

442

230

—

763

278

230

—

284

246

115

298

603

576

234

129

682

532

568

576

518

768

614

4483

2-618

11,103

5643

hour day from 8:00 A. M. to 6:00 P. M. calls
for 4483 jitney turns at these intersections.
Six intersections will have but a single jitney
tuim and three, two jitney turns. The total
number of turns will be but 12 as against 30
today.

If the aggregate traffic at the different

intersections every day. Under the proposed
plan, this number is reduced to 5,643 — almost
fifty per cent, of the present traffic.

Table VIII shows in detail exactly what the
proposed plan will do to relieve congestion at
different street intersections.

The abandonment of the City Hall trolley

loop would nuiko it possible to make the block
on \\'ashinj>’ton Street between Market and
Kllison Sti’eets a two-way street and thus
eliminate a considerable amount of the pres-
ent cong-estion on Market Street due to the
traffic from Union Street and Hamilton

Washinjiton, as well as the crossin^fs at Mai-
ket and Kllison Streets would be completely
abandoned. With these loute chanjjes, the
numbei’ of cars turning' at Market and Main
would be increased from 640 to 714, but the
number of left hand turns would be dimin-

TABLE IX.

Number of Trolley Cars Per Hour on Dillerenl Lines, November .1, 1921.

Line.

9-1 (1

10-11

11-12

12-1

1-2

2 ~?>

3-4

4-5

5-6

H-7

Total

Broadway

1 4

125

Governor

Haledon

Hawthorne

Hudson River

Main

Passaic

Paterson

6 0

Park Avenue

1 1

127

Riverside

Singac

Totowa

Total

104

846

Street, both one-way streets being obliged to
join the traffic on Market Street in order to
cross it. With Washington Street a two-way
street, the traffic into Union Street could
cross Market Street at Washington Street and
thus obviate the offset now necessary on
Market Street.

The jitney traffic, as considered in this and
following tables, is based upon the operating
schedules. Traffic counts, however, show
that in many instances there is a considerable
discrepancy between the actual and the
scheduled service; the operating schedules
call for more frequent service than is actually
provided by the jitneys.

The plan proposed for the re-routing of the
trolleys would reduce the number of turns on
Main Street from 188H to 1194. The turns
at Van Ilouten and Main, Ellison and Main,
Market and Washington, and Ellison and

ished from 425 to 362. The number of cars
tui ning at Broadway and Main would be de-
creased from 899 to 598. The aggregate
number of turns on Main and Washington
Streets between Market and Broadway would
practically be cut in two, being 1312 under
the ijroposed plan as against the present
number of 2462.

Table IX shows the number of trolley cars
operated each hour fi'om 9:00 A. M. to 7:00
P. M. on each line November 3, 1921.

Through-routing will enable the jitneys and
trolleys to make the same number of ti'ips
per day as at present on a smaller mileage or
an increased number of trips per day without
any increase in mileage. In case of the
jitneys, this advantage would be especially
noteworthy, amounting to 8.2 per cent, of
the aggregate mileage on the local lines.

At present, the local jitneys consume one-

TROLLEY TRAFFIC STREAMS

DOWNTOWN, PATERSON

9A,M-7P,M NOV. I.I9EI

FIGURE 33. — The trolleys in crossing, turning on and off Main Street greatly aggravate the traffic problem.
Some hours the northbound traffic on Main Street is blocked at Broadway for an aggregate of thirty minutes.

twelfth of their total mileage in turning
around to go back over their respective
routes. In through-routing, there will be no
useless turning around — each jitney will dis-
charge its inbound load while picking up its
outbound load. Through-routing will save

the jitneys one-twelfth of their time, one-
twelfth of their gas, one-twelfth of their re-
pairs, one-twelfth of the wear and tear on
their machines — all without any loss in
revenue.

Table X shows the mileage that the several

FIGURE 34. — Abandonment of the Broadway and City Hall Loops will permit all cars to run through from
Broadway to Market Street. This will accelerate the speed of the trolleys as well as of all other traffic. Note
the much larger number of trolleys passing the Erie Station.

jitney lines would save under the i)roposed
re-routing scheme.

The commuting traffic is at pi-esent very
inadequately served by both the jitneys and
the trolleys. There appears to be no good
reason why a larger number of either cannot

be brought nearer to the Erie Station.

Under the re-routing scheme suggested, all
the ti’olleys that now pass the station would
continue doing so. In addition, some of the
cars on the Hawthorne Line and all of the
cars on the Totowa and Paterson lines would

JITNEY TRAFFIC STREAMS

DOWNTOWN PATERSON

BA.tvI. 6P.M TYPICAL DAY AUGUST 1*521

FIGURE 35. — The business section constitutes today one huge turning table for the different jitney lines.
There are no less than thirteen separate and distinct loops in all, the Jitneys turning at every street inter-
section but one.

be bi’ought right past the station.

A like improvement would be effected in
the case of the jitney service.

The per cent, of jitneys that would go with-

in different distances of the Erie Station un-
der the proposed plan as contrasted with the
present plan, is indicated in Table XI.

FIGURE 36. — All the jitneys are removed from Main Street thus reiieving them from constant annoyance by
slowiy moving trolieys. Note how the jitneys are distributed on the several streets so as better to serve traffic
as well as to avoid congestion.

TABLE X.

JITNEY MILES SAVED UNDER

Present

Line.

Mileage.

560

Haledon-Governor 82 6

Singac-Market 204

Main-Riverside 1368

Hawthorne-Beech and Clay 4 32

Broadway 337

Total 372 7

PROPOSED

RE-ROUTING

PLAN.

Proposed

Jitney

Per cent Jitney

Jitney

Miles

Mileage.

Saved.

Saved,

444

116

20.8

779

5.7

193

5.6

1313

4.0

366

15.7

326

3.2

3421

306

8.2

TABLE XL

Pei' Cent, of Jitneys Going Within Different Distances of Erie Station Under Present and

Proposed Plans of Re-Routing.

Distance from Station. Present Plan

Right past 29.4

1 block —

2 blocks —

3 blocks 20.4

4 blocks 14.8

5 blocks 35.4

100 .

At present 71 per cent, of the jitneys that
operate on the local lines do not come nearer
than three blocks to the station. More than
a third of the jitneys do not come nearer than
Market and Main or Washington and Ellison.
Nobody using a jitney would under the pro-
posed plan have to walk more than two blocks
to the station. All the jitneys that would
not pass the station would pass either Clark
and Market, Paterson and Ellison or Church
and Ellison.

A proper re-routing of jitneys and trolleys
will benefit the whole business district.
Traffic at Broadway and Main is so congested
and has been for so long that machines in
passing in and out of the business district are

r Cent Proposed Plan Per Cent.

26.6

55.0

18.4

100.0

with increasing frequency short-circuiting
Main Street and taking other routes. To
some it may be as much a shock as a surprise
to learn that even today there are more vehi-
cles at half a dozen points in Paterson than
at Broadway and Main. Though the trolleys
are the greatest contributing cause to Main
Sti'eet congestion, the jitneys also contribute
their shares as is witnessed by the fact that
when the present schedule is lived up to, 1154
jitneys pass the intersection of Ellison and
Main Streets every day between 8:00 A. M.
and 6:00 P. M. If Main Street is to retain
its position as the city’s principal shopping-
street, something must be done to relieve the
congestion on it.

FIGURE 37. — The Falls in summer. This beautiful cataract, the greatest scenic asset of the entire State of
New Jersey, is unapproached by a single thoroughfare, being situated in what practically amounts to the city’s
back-yard. The Fallsway Memorial would redeem our past indifference to this wonderful heritage.

Without boldly attacking the jitney, trolley
and parking problems, congestion in the
business district will go from bad to worse.
To meet the issue now will cause less incon-

venience and embarassment to business inter-
ests and the public generally than to postpone
it for nothing is to be gained by delay.

CHAPTER III.

FUNCTIONAL STREET PLANNING.

With the adoption of a city-wide compre-
hensive zoning ordinance regulating not only
the use to which property may be put but
the intensity of its development both as to
the height and size of buildings, Paterson is
for the first time in its history in a position
to adopt a functional street plan.

With zoning, each street may be designed
to serve some specialized pui*pose. When
the use to which buildings may be put is left
unregulated all streets have to be planned
alike. When it is not known where industry
or business is to go, every street has to be
designed in such a manner as to serve all
uses of property equally well. The inevitable
result is, of course, that no use is served to
the best advantage.

Streets of a uniform type and pattern have
to be laid out in all parts of the town, despite
the fact that the street needs of the several
parts are materially different.

Directness which is so desirable a quality
in business streets is not a prerequisite for
minor residential streets. In fact, it often
robs such streets of their distinctive charac-
ter. One of the chief charms of the many
attractive suburban developments plotted in
recent years, is the cosy domestic character
of the local streets in which the monotony of
endless straight wind-swept thoroughfares
has given way to short streets of narrow
width.

In a residential neighborhood the traffic
being of a local character and consequently of
no great moment, there is no imperative de-
mand for wide roadways. Indeed, wide road-
ways are a liability in residence districts.
Every additional foot of roadway space over
the minimum necessary, increases the cost of
his house to the home-owner and makes
home-owning that much more difficult and
rare, for the home-owner pays as truly for
the land within the street lines as for the
land within the lot lines. A wide street costs

him more than a narrow street, just as a big
lot costs him more than a small one.

Our towns have paid dearly for parsimoni-
ous town planning. The price they have paid
for street widenings during the last fifty
years is enormous. But the cost of widening
a few miles of streets which were originally
laid out too narrow, fabulous as it is, would
look small compared to the value of the land
and pavements wasted in miles and miles of
unnecessarily wide residential streets.

A Scientific Paving Policy.

Each street should obviously be paved with
the kind of pavement not only best adapted
to the kind of traffic served by the street,
but also best suited to the needs of the ad-
joining property. A brick or granite pave-
ment is not wanted on a residential street,
neither is a bituminous pavement wanted on
a heavy warehouse street. The noise of the
first destroys the quiet of the neighborhood,
while the wear on the second soon ruins the
pavement.

It is most extravagant and wasteful to
accommodate the strength of every pavement
whether it be in a residence, business or in-
dustrial district to the weight of the heaviest
vehicle in the city. And yet without zoning,
that was the policy Paterson was practically
forced to adopt. A proper zoning system in
confining different districts to different uses,
goes a long way in segregating different kinds
of traffic by automatically tending to exclude
heavy vehicles from residence districts, and
to restrict them to business streets.

Residential streets should not be asked to
provide pavements for vehicles which have
assumed the weight and proportions of a
freight car. The twelve, fifteen and twenty-
ton truck not only injures the wearing sur-
face of a light pavement, it also cracks and
breaks the base of the pavement. A pave-

FIGURE 38. — During some hours the railroad gates at
Market Street are down nine, ten and even twelve times.

FIGURE 39. — A thirty minute parking time limit would
abolish all day parking on Main Street. This would
quadruple the number of cars able to park near the stores.

ment with a base of six inches or even less in
thickness, is adequate for all ordinary traffic
in residential sections. For heavy trucks, a
base eight, ten or twelve inches thick is re-
quired. There is only one alternative to in-
creasing the thickness of the base, and that
is to reinforce the concrete used in its con-
struction. There are limits beyond which
this method, however, cannot be exercised to
afford additional strength, limits beyond
which increased strength can only be ol)tained
through increased thickness. Some towns
are pursuing both methods, they are not only
increasing the thickness of the pavement but
also reinforcing the concrete used in its con-
struction. But whether the pavement is
strengthened in one way or another, it costs
more to the taxpayer and the pul)lic, imposing
a burden from which both might be relieved
through the adoption of a farsighted policy
of street planning.

The quality of pavement is only one side
of the picture. The quantity of pavement
required in a city must also be considered.
The ordinary quiet residential street requires
a roadway wide enough for only two vehicles
to pass one another freely. Today many
residential streets have a I'oadway width from
25 to 50 per cent, wider than that required.
In other words, there are miles and miles of
streets in Paterson which could be paved for
from GO to 80 per cent, of the cost of paving
them to their present width. On such streets
even if a pavement of the same character
were laid, the cost could be cut from 20 to 40
per cent. But as we have seen, a much
lighter pavement can be laid if heavy traffic
is excluded fi-om a street than if it is allowed.
Taking this matter into consideration, the
cost of paving i-esidential streets can in many
instances be reduced to less than one-half of
the pi'esent cost.

FIGURE 40. — West Side Park and vicinity. This and the three succeeding pictures were taken from the flag-
staff on Garret Rock. There are still large areas of vacant land to be developed in Paterson. Half of the city’s
area is still unbuilt upon.

Cross Sections of Residential Streets.

Proposed cross sections of typical resident'
ial and business streets are shown in Fig. 44.

The width of roadway in residential streets
should be made the minimum consistent with
satisfactory service to avoid unnecessary ex-
pense. Where only the normal residential
traffic has to be provided for, a roadway
width of 24 feet is ample. This roadway
width is proposed for the streets 50 and 60
feet wide. This width will accommodate a
parked vehicle at either curb and a rapidly
moving vehicle in the center or a parked
vehicle at one curb and two vehicles passing
in the same or in opposite directions.

Streets 70 and 80 feet wide, on account of
their width, are presumed to have more traf-
fic than narrower residential streets. Even
if they do not carry any through traffic, they
seiwe as outlets for the traffic on the nai-
rower residence streets. Their roadway
width should, therefore, not be less than 32
feet. This width will accommodate a vehicle

parked on either side and a moving vehicle
in each direction, or where vehicles are not
parked, two lines of moving vehicles in each
direction.

The setback of buildings or the depth of
front yards is governed by the zoning ordin-
ance and varies according to the zone in which
the street is situated. In apartment house,
business and industrial zones, no setbacks are
required by the ordinance.

Good street trees add to the attractiveness
of the community quite as much as good
buildings. Trees should be as near the road-
way as practicable. The best appearance of
the street as well as the shade afforded by
the trees make this desirable. Trees next
to the curb shield the walk and adjacent prop-
erty from the dust of the street. They also
enable the walk to be located farther from the
roadway and nearer the residences. This
location makes the pleasantest walk and is
most satisfactory to the pedestrian. Owners
generally prefer to have the trees located at
the curb for then they cannot cause injury

FIGURE 41. — The Haledon Section of Paterson. The reservoir is in the foreground and the Passaic River
Immediately back of it. The Falls are in the upper right. The Fallsway Memorial would run from West Side Park,
which is shown in the upper left, parallel to the River past the Falls, and thence to the downtown section of
the city.

to the adjacent lawns, nor grow objectionalilj^
close to dwellings. Street trees should be
given sufficient room and soil in which to
grow. They should, therefore, not even on
the narrowest streets, be neai’er than three
feet to the curb line.

The sidewalk pavement is given a width of
five feet for all streets except those 80 feet
wide, where a width of six feet is planned.

Cross Sections of Business Streets.

Business streets have an entirely different
function from residential streets and neces-
sarily require different cross sections. Bus-
iness depends on traffic — the greater the
traffic, the more valuable is the street for
business purposes. A business street should
be designed, therefore, to take care of trafl'ic
up to the full limit of its width. Any park-
ing, trees, etc., detract from its serviceability
to business by interposing obstacles to trade.
Storekeepers desire to get as near the travel-
ling public as possible.

The problem with predetermined street
widths is how to fix the relative proportion
of space to be devoted to vehicular traffic and
to pedesti'ians.

An entirely satisfactory business street,
considered apart from its use as a thorough-
fare, should admit of vehicles parking on both
sides so that shoppers arriving in automo-
biles can visit stores with the least effort.

A street 50 feet wide with a roadway width
of 32 feet will permit parked vehicles on
either side with sufficient room in the center
for a vehicle moving in each direction. This
is considei’ed the minimum width of roadway
for a business street. With the present
standard roadway width of 30 feet for a 50-
foot street, when vehicles are parked on
either side, there is not sulficinet room for
two moving vehicles in the center. The
small inci'ease in width proposed which per-
mits two moving vehicles between the stand-
ing ones, practically doubles the capacity ol'
the roadway. Pedestrian traffic is more flex-
ible than vehicular traffic and can accommo-

FIGURE 42. — Downtown Paterson. Paterson grew up around the Falls. The mills in the left are situated
along the raceways. The residential area between these mills and the business section in the upper right is the
most densely populated in the city.

date itself in a measure to the width allowed.
A sidewalk width of 9 feet is contemplated on
50-foot streets.

For a business street, 60 feet wide, a road-
way width of 40 feet instead of the present
standard of 36 feet is suggested. This road-
way width will provide for a parked vehicle
at either curb and three lines of moving vehi-
cles. The sidewalk width proposed is 10
feet.

A business street 70 feet in width would
have a roadway width of 50 feet. With a
double track trolley in the center and a stand-
ing vehicle at either curb, there would still
})e sufficient room left on either side of the
the trolley cars for a moving vehicle. Where
there are no trolley tracks, four lines of mov-
ing vehicles can be accommodated between
cars parked at either curb. Sidewalks 10
feet in width would be provided to accommo-
date pedesti’ian traffic.

An 80-foot wide business street would have
a I'oadway width of 56 feet instead of 48 feet,
the present standard. Genei’ous width is
given for one line of moving vehicles on either

side of a double trolley with parked vehicle
at either curb, or two lines of moving vehicles
on either side of the trolley where there is no
parking. Sidewalks of 12 feet in width
would take care of pedestrian traffic.

The sidewalk width provided may in ex-
ceptional cases prove inadequate for pedes-
trians. Then the walks must be widened at
the expense of either private property or the
capacity of the roadway.

These cross sections, it should be said, do
not represent ideal conditions. They are
designed on the basis of street widths already
fixed with a view to obtaining the maximum
I'oom for vehicular traffic.

Street Intersections and Curb Corners.

The capacity of its street intersections
limits the amount of vehicular traffic a street
can carry. Traffic at the intersections is
obviously greater than at other points on the
street — the number of vehicles passing
through the intersections is the sum of those
arriving from all directions and is generally
much greater than the numl)er passing

FIGURE 43. Downtown Paterson. Paterson is peculiarly blest among American cities in not having any
high skyscrapers. The zoning law, moreover, limits the heighth of buildings to one and one-half times the width
of the street with a maximum of 125 feet in the downtown section.

through the block. In the case of a crossing
of streets having equal traffic the number of
vehicles passing through the intersection is
twice that passing over any other portion of
the streets. Cross traffic and turns fi’om
one street to another both require reduced
speed or a stop and prolong the time that
vehicles are in the intersection. This re-
duces the number of vehicles than can pass
through an intersection. For these reasons,
the capacity of a street crossing others at
frequent intervals is much less, often a mere
fraction of a highway with few crossings.

It is extremely important to utilize all pos-
sible means of passing traffic at busy inter-
sections. The addition of vehicular space at
and near such intersections is one of the
means to effect improvements. In order to
accommodate as many vehicles as possible
abreast, the curb should be set back as far as
pedestrian traffic will permit.

Another effective means of improving
street intersections where the traffic into or
out of cross streets is heavy, is by turning
the curb at the corner with a larger radius.

Many curb corners designed in the days of
horse-drawn vehicles are rounded very little
and an auto in tui'ning the coi'ner has to
occupy a considearble part of both streets.
Often the pole or fixture of some public ser-
vice company or municipal department is
located at the corner. These sharp corners
are in a measure a safety device for pedes-
trians against reckless autoists, for the lat-
ter have to slow down, and cannot approach
persons crossing the street from behind.
Traffic is, however, greatly hindered by such
obstructions.

In New York, right angle curb corners
were foi-merly turned with a radius of six
feet in most cases. Automobile traffic was so
impeded at these intersections that the curb
corners have since been reconstructed to a
raduis of 12 feet in large sections of the city
at considerable expense. So far as the auto-
mobile is concerned, the curb should be turned
with a turning radius of not less than that of
the motor car. This varies from 20 to 45
feet. The average is about 30 feet. To
employ such a large curb radius would require

FIGURE 44.

the taking' of considerable pi’operty at the
sti'eet corner and would also add an element
of danger to the crossing pedestrian. Such
a corner would probably not be advisable in
built-up sections except where the turns in a
particular dii'ection were unusually numerous.

Generally, the curb should be turned in the
case of right angle crossings with a radius
of the least sidewalk width at the intersec-
tion. This gives the lai'gest curb radius com-
patible with retaining that sidewalk Avidth
around the comer which does not encroach
upon private property. It greatly facilitates
the turning of the corner by automobiles and
is not so great as to be unsafe to pedestrians.

Some of the street intersections in Pater-
son where a large amount of traffic turns
from one street to the other have the curb
corners re-arranged substantially as above
suggested. The Board of Public Works has
adopted a far-sighted policy in this regard in
the setting back of curb corners as and when
the street is improved and thus avoiding all
unnecessary expense. It is, therefore, only
a question of time until the present bad con-
ditions at the curb corners will be rectified.

The speed at which machines can turn
corners depends upon several factors. The
width of the intersecting streets ; whether or
not a corner is rounded off and the extent to
which it is rounded off ; whether the tinm is
to the right or to the left; and the distance
the machine is travelling from the curb.

A car running near the curb in making a
right angle turn into an intersecting street,
will generally have to leave the curb and
travel nearer the center of the roadway on
entering the cross street as the tui-ning radius
of the car is usually considerably greater
than that of the curb. It conseciuently fol-
lows that how closely a car can keep to the
curb and avoid interference with other lines
of traffic depends on its turning radius. Cars
with a short turning radius obviously can
keep nearer the curb and avoid interference
with other traffic much better than those
with a larger turning radius. The speed of

turning under these conditions, presuming a
clear roadway, depends on the machine and
not on the width of I'oadway. Increased
street widths, however, permit increased
speed of cars in making right-hand turns,
when they travel near the center of the road-
way and in the case of several ti’affic units
abreast, a car making a right-hand turn and
moving nearest the center line of the street
would turn in the largest circle and safely
move the fastest. It has a longer path to
travel, however, and the increase in velocity
will not entirely compensate for the greater
length of the outside path.

Where the corners are cut off, the speed,
due to the increased turning radius, may be
considerably increased without any decrease
in relative safety. As one would naturally
expect, cutting off the corners is compara-
tively of much greater importance to inter-
secting streets of a narrow width than to
streets of great width.

Many machines, especially the bigger ones
with large turning radius, experience great
difficulty in making right-hand turns without
encroaching upon the left hand side of the
roadway. Particularly on the narrower
streets it is no uncommon occurrence foi‘ ma-
chines to swing almost over to the left hand
side before turning to the right. Sometimes
this swing to the left is carried out within the
intersection itself in a manner to block the
intersection from all directions. Right hand
turns executed in this manner ai'e more em-
barrassing to traffic than those to the left.
The importance of not only wide streets but
rounded corners to remedy this situation is
apparent.

In the case of a left hand turn a car near
the curb has the greatest tuiTiing radius and
can consequently move with the gi’eatest
speed but the speed will not fully compensate
for the length of its path. When a car mak-
ing such a turn has to go around a central
point, tui'ning radii and safe speeds ai'e the
same as with I'ight angle turns around a
sharp corner, curb lines and center lines being

FIGURE 45.— The Falls In Winter. The preservation of the Falls for the public would constitute the noblest
memorial Paterson could provide for her hero dead who fell in the World War.

transposed. The tinning radius and speed
increase with the width of the street when
the car turns close to the curb.

Left hand turns where a centi’al point has
to be rounded will consequently be found to
I)e shorter and more difficult to negotiate
than right hand turns. Where there are
many left hand turns, the movement of traf-
fic will be greatly facilitated by requiring it
to I’ound markers immediately before and
after the intersection is reached instead of at
the center. This will permit the negotiation
of the turn with a considerable greater radius
and speed than would otherwise be possible.
Left hand turns then have the advantage in
these respects. Light hand turns can be
made, however, liy encroaching on the left
hand side of the street in a circle equally

large.

Streets in closely built sections can never
be made safe for high speeds for two reasons :

(1) machines cannot turn shaiq) corners
while travelling fast without danger of skid-
ding or of running down pedestrians; and

(2) corners cut off by a sufficient amount to
enable drivers of fast machines to see traffic
on intersecting streets and stop in time to
avoid colliding with the cross traffic or to
make a safe turn at high speed would require
in lousiness sections, too much valuable prop-
erty, and would make the crossing less satis-
factory for pedestrians.

Cutting off the street corners, instead of
making the streets safe for fast vehicles, only
renders them less dangerous for slow ones.

(^IIAl’TKK IV.

NEKDKl) IMl’KOVEMKNT IN THE (ITY’S STREET SYSTEM.

The business men of Paterson should very
naturally desire to extend the commercial
hinterland tributary to the city as far as pos-
sible. Only the blindest folly on the part
of the city itself can rob it of supremacy to
the west and north. Thoug'h growing rapid-
ly, this is all virgin territory. As a com-
petitor for the trade of this territory, Pater-
son stands alone — there are no rivals. The
only way in which Paterson can possibly lose
her natural ascendency in this large area is
by voluntary forfeiting it, that is by so fail-
ing to serve it that new business districts
must be established to care for the trade.

To the east and south, however, the situa-
tion is quite different. Here strong and
energetic competitors already exist, and in
some respects they possess trade advantages
that Paterson lacks. The natural movement
of traffic in this vicinity is from west to east
and from north to south, not the I'everse.
The main thoroughfares throughout the
metropolitan area have been designed to
facilitate movement not toward any paific-
ular suburban unit, but toward New York.
That is one of the reasons why the suburbs
are so small. Their existence has revolved
about New York — they have never syste-
matically attempted to develop an identity
of their own.

The future city af Paterson should cer-
tainly extend to the Saddle River on the east
and to the Great Notch on the southwest.
But whether this territory is or is not incoi-
porated as an integral part of the city, every
effort should be exerted to establish superioi’
means of communication with this large area
so that if it is not in the city, it shall, at least,
be suburban to the city.

To-day, this territory consists of vacant
stretches of farm lands. For the most part,
it is unsubdivided. With few exceptions, the
future street system of the area can as easily

be planned as an harmonious part of the
street plan of Paterson as of such neighbor-
ing communities as Hackensack, Passaic or
Montclair. The co-operation of the neigh-
boring communities, of course, must be se-
cured in order that their street plans will
harmonize with ours. But first of all, we
must plan within our own limits the streets
that will be required to serve this large area.

If Main Street is to remain the only
through down-town street in the city, then
the business growth of Paterson will have
reached its maximum development when im-
proved methods of regulating traffic have
had their possibilities exhausted and refuse
to pass an increased number of vehicles.

Much can be accomplished through the
installation of more scientific methods of traf-
fic control, especially through re-routing the
jitneys and trolleys, the elimination of super-
fluous car stops, the enactment of effective
parking ordinances, etc., but the relief afford-
ed by all of these palliative measures will do
little more than make present conditions
tolerable. Even if they were to care for the
normal increased growth in traffic during the
next foui‘ or five years, at the end of that
period, the traffic situation would be relative-
ly the same as now, and additional new streets
would have to be provided for further in
creased traffic.

Improved traffic regulations, therefore, will
not permanently take the place of increased
street facilities, nor can their pi'ovision be
indefinitely postponed. If the opening or
widening of necessary streets is delayed until
traffic catches up with the present facilities,
then street improvements now financially
possible will have become, through the erec-
tion of expensive buildings, economically im-
possible.

The program of street widenings and ex-
tensions recommended in this report include:

streets prevail in the business and industrial sections
where they should be the widest.

Bridge Street widening to 80 feet, Arch
Street Bridge to Broadway.

Bridge Street opening 80 feet, Broadway
to Ward Street.

Prince Street widening to 80 feet. Ward
Street to Slater Street.

Spring Street widening to 80 feet. Slater
Street to Peach Street.

Getty Avenue opening 80 feet. Straight
Street to Peach Street.

Water Street widening to 100 feet. Arch
Street Bridge to Haledon Avenue.

Water Street opening 100 feet, Haledon
Avenue to city line.

Marshall Street opening 60 feet, Oliver
Street to Prospect Street.

Prospect Street widening to 60 feet. Van
llouten Street to River Street.

Prospect Street opening, 80 feet. River
Street to Hamburgh Avenue.

Broadway widening to 60 feet, Piospect
Street to Mulberry Street.

Pallsway Memorial: Opening of new
street past Falls, 100 feet. River Street and
Pi'ospect Street to West Side Park.

Straight Street widening to 80 feet. Main
Street to Fulton Street.

FIGURE 47. — Streets over 70 feet wide. There is no
system of wide streets in Paterson. Such wide streets
as exist must be connected to be fuily utilized.

Barclay Street widening to 80 feet. Hazel
Street to Main Street.

Market Street widening to 70 feet, Erie
Railroad to East 18th Street.

Lakeview Avenue extension 60 feet. Mar-
ket Street to 21st Avenue.

Boulevard widening and relocation, irreg-
ular width. Crooks Avenue to 5th Avenue.

Morris and Essex Boulevard opening 66
feet, Morris and Essex Canal.

Newark Avenue widening and cut-olf, 80
feet. Hazel Street to Main Street.

River Street widening to 60 feet. Main Line
to Sparrow Street.

First Avenue cut-offs. River Street and
Madison Avenue to River Street Bridge,
Boulevard to Wagaraw Bridge.

York Avenue extension 60 feet, Warren
Street to Lyon Street.

York Avenue widening to 60 feet, Godwin
Street to Warren Street.

Madison Avenue opening 80 feet, Susque-
hanna Railroad to 14th Avenue.

16th Avenue, opening 70 feet, Main Line
Erie Railroad to Market Street; 50 feet,
East 18th Street to Madison Avenue.

-19

IMoiion Street, openiiiji' 70 feet, Strai} 2 :lit
Street to Kailroad Avenue; 50 feet, Mai’ket
Street to Sununer Street.

lOast Bth Street, openinji’ 50 feet, River
Street to Warren Sti'eet. Cnt-otf Branch
Street.

\’an llonten Street openiii}*' 60 feet, East
18tli Street to Madison Avenue.

Iloxsey Street, widening- 80 feet. Grand
Street to McBride Avenue.

28rd Avenue cut-off to Madison Avenue.

Alabama Avenue opening 70 feet. Lake-
view Avenue to Mai-ket Street.

Summer Street opening 80 feet, under
proposed railroad viaduct from Keen Street
to River Street.

Clark Street cut-off southwest comer Mar-
ket and Clark Street.

BRIDGE STREET.

If Paterson is ever to have more than one
continuous through street bisecting the heart
of the business district from north to south,
that street must be an extension and widen-
ing of Bridge Street. No other street opens
up such great possibilities ; no other street is
so favorably located. Situated approximate-
ly half way between Main Street and Straight
Street, tapping River Street, East Main
Street and Haledon Avenue on the north, and
running directly into Getty Avenue and Bar-
clay Street on the south, it will afford direct
access to the shopping district from all the
suburban communities lying on both sides
of the city — Ridgewood, Glen Rock, Haw-
thorne, Prospect Park, Haledon and Clifton.

To make Bridge Street what it really
should be, it is necessary to extend it from
its present terminus at Broadway to a point
where it would enter Prince Street at Ward
Street. Prince Street joins Ward Street
south of Slater Street so that beyond this
point the extension would utilize Spring
Street. To connect Spring Street with Getty
Avenue, a new street would have to be cut

FIGURE 48. — Bridge Street extension and widening.
Clark Street cutoff. Jackson Street extension.

through between Peach and Straight Streets.
A uniform width of 80 feet is contemplated
for the entire street, for the old portion as
well as the new, all the way from Getty Ave-
nue to the Arch Street Bridge over the Pas-
saic River. On the west side of the river,
north of Arch Street Bridge, the improve-
ment would be continued by taking all the
land between Water Street and the River as
far as East Main Street. Beyond East Main
Street to the city line, a new street skirting
the bank of the river with a width of one
hundred feet would be laid out to afford
access to the rapidly growing communities
on the north.

WATER STREET.

This street is designed to link up the sev-
eral thoroughfares entering Paterson from
the north and northwest, as well as the
bridges in this section so that any of the
bridge crossings may be used with equal facil-
ity. Traffic can then distribute itself over
the bridges and into the streets as found most
convenient.

The street will also provide a new thor-
oughfare of ample width by which traffic
over Arch Street Bridge and others may pro-
ceed to the north over an ample thoroughfare
instead of through the narrow streets now
used. It will also give the City of Paterson
control over a long section of its river front
which is poorly developed at the present time.

This proposed improvement consists of
widening Water Street on the east side be-
tween Arch Street and East Main Street to
a width of 100 feet, while parking any re-
maining areas between the street and the
river. The street would continue along the
river bank at the width of 100 feet entering
East Main Street just outside the limits of
the city in Prospect Park and should continue
by widening that thoroughfare from its pres-
ent width of 50 feet to 100 feet.

With the exception of a factoiy build-
ing between East Main Street and Straight

Street, the proposed widening and extension
traverses a section which is poorly developed,
mostly with two story frame houses many of
them quite old. East of Bergen Street, the
proposed street traverses property mostly
vacant.

The Arch Street bridge. Straight Street
bridge, Hillman Street bridge and Sixth Ave-
nue bridge enter directly into this proposed
improvement, the latter at the line between
the Boroughs of Prospect Park and Haw-
thorne.

MARSHALL STREET.

Maivshall Street parallelinj? Main Street for
a considerable distance, unencunibei’ed witli
trolleys and bein«- the principal street from
the downtown section to Montclair, Bloom-
field, the Oranges and Newark, is seriously
handicapped by not having a better outlet to
the north. As it comes to an abrupt stop
at Oliver Street, all the traffic using it is
obliged to occupy Main Street from that
point in order to enter the business district.
This embarrasses a large amount of through
traffic by obliging it to use Main Street
through its most congested section. If
Marshall Street were extended from Oliver
Street to Market so that it would feed into
Prospect Street, the effect would be to speed
up the movement of vehicles throughout the
entire business district. The business dis-
trict could be served with a far gi’eater num-
ber of machines entering from both north
and south; congestion on Main Street would
be relieved; and the speed of traffic through
the city would be tremendously accelerated.

Marshall Street, extended thus and joined
through Prospect Street with the proposed
Fallsway Memorial, the Water Street im-
provement, and Hamburgh Avenue would
immediately become a thoroughfare of in-
creased importance. Today the factories are
encroaching more and more toward the east,
the distance between them and Main Street
is steadily lessing ; indeed, factories are
even now operating on Main Street itself.
If the factory movement toward the east is
not halted, the supremacy of Main Street as
the chief shopping street of the city will be
seriously threatened. To keep Main Street
the street it is, means that the factories must
be kept at their present distance. They can-
not be allowed to come any nearer; if any-
thing, they should be pushed farther back.

The extension of Marshall Street would
tend to increase the land values on Prospect
Street. The through traffic that would go
over this street from Totowa, Little Falls,
Haledon and Pomp ton to Newark, the

Oranges, Montclaii’, Bloomlield and Clirton,
when added to its present local traffic, would
make it one of the most traveled streets in

FIGURE 50. — Marshall Street extension. Prospect
Street widening and extension to Hamburgh Avenue and
Fallsway Memorial.

FIGURE 51. — Fallsway Memorial Park and Parkway.
Broadway cutoff.

the city. This would of course, attract
shoppers and serve to galvanize the whole
district now in a transitional stage with new
life. In time it would not be unreasonable
to expect that this street improvement would
roll back the factory development away from
Main Street, till up the gap between Prospect
and Main Streets with stores and help per-
manently to maintain Main Street in its pres-
ent position as the chief shopping center of
the city.

THE FALLSWAY MEMORIAL.

The Fallsway Memorial would do more than
provide access to the Falls, though this would
be a sufficiently worthy achievement in it-
self — it would also shorten the distance be-
tween the west and east sections of the city,
thus affording a new street of easy grades
from the center of town to West Side Park.
It would also relieve the congestion of traffic
on Main Street, pei'initting through vehicles
entirely to avoid Main Street and consequent-
ly increase the ability of that street to care
for purely local traffic. The traffic from
Little Falls, Singac and Totowa, now using
Union Avenue would all be diverted to the
Fallsway Memorial. This would relieve both
Hamburgh Avenue and West Street of their
present congestion. By opening up new
routes to traffic — making offset streets like
Marshall and Prospect through streets and
encouraging traffic to circulate instead of
stagnating in a maize of streets leading ab-
solutely nowhere; by providing what prac-
tically amounts to a new street parallel to
Main and West Streets, thus doubling the
thoroughfare space available for through
traffic; by affording such streets as Broad-
way, River and Water a new outlet for their
traffic, the Fallsway Memorial with its con-
nections is the one big outstanding street
improvement that will do more than any
other improvement, not even excepting the
Bridge Street extension and widening, to re-
lieve downtown congestion.

The Fallsway Memorial and its connections
including the three new bridges over the Pas-
saic River may be viewed in various ways;
it may be considered, in one sense, as a con-
tinuation of Broadway, thus affording one
continuous street from West Side Park to
East Side Park. In another sense, it may
be looked upon as a projection of River Street
across the Passaic and as a means of provid-
ing direct access from Totowa to River-
side. Then, too, it may be regarded as an
extension of Water Street past the Falls, thus

slioi'lc'niiio’ tlu' routes hetwoeu I lawthoi'iir
and \A'est Side Park.

The Fallsway Memorial would aH'ovd an
appi'oaeh to our »'i‘oatest uatural asset — the
Falls. That uothino- has ever been done to
preserve and make available to the public the
majesty and «Tandeur of this beautiful spot
is the severest indictment that can possibly
be lodo'ed against our past lack of prudence
and foresight in city planning. This remark-
able cataract with its interesting chasm
should have been preserved for public pur-
poses a hundred years ago. The pi’eserva-
tion of the Falls is something that Patei’son
has always wanted, still wants and will want
until they are acquired.

Had the reservation of the Falls for
recreational purposes been woi'ked out at the
time the city was founded in connection with
the utilization of its power for industrial
purposes, the happiest solution to both prob-
lems would, of course, have been possible.
But even today it is not too late. The land
still vacant, however, is being rapidly im-
proved; if the Falls are ever to be acquired
for public purposes, it must be now without
delay before all the land is improved.

These are some of the practical considei'-
ations which make the Fallsway Memorial a
paramount necessity. But it may be made
something moi-e than a mei'e thoroughfare.

As yet the city has erected no memorial
to the heroes of the World War. Who can
deny the appropriateness of such a memoi'ial,
especially when it is coupled with the preser-
vation of land at present vacant in the vicin-
ity of the Falls on Monument Hill as a public
park? No other place with the exception of
Garret fiock, affords such a wonderful ])an-
orama of the entire city and, indeed, of the
entire surrounding counti'y. That the G. A. U.
should have chosen this site for the memoi-ial
to those who fell in the Civil War ceififies to
its availibility as a monument site; that this
monument should now be removed to East
Side Park nearly sixty years after the close
of the Wai', instead of reflecting upon the

FIGURE 52. — Straight Street widening and extension.
Barclay Street widening. Newark Avenue widening and
cutoff.

FIGURE 53. — Market Street widening. Raiiroad Avenue extension. Crosby Piace and Sixteenth Avenue
extension. Morton Street extension.

unique location of this rugged promontory
overlooking the Passaic for monument pur-
poses, is only another proof, if any were de-
sired, of the dreary isolation at present sur-
rounding the approach to the Falls.

Viewed either as a thoroughfare or as a
memorial, the Fallsway Memorial is an indis-
pensable part of any satisfactory program of
civic development.

STRAIGHT STREET.

Straight Street is one of the most import-
ant links in the city’s major street system.
Being the only continuous street running
north and south through the city between
Madison Avenue and Main Street and located
immediately to one side of the business dis-
trict, it will, in time, serve not only as a cut-
off between Main and River Streets and,
therefore, as a relief to the downtown streets,
but as a main highway between such com-
munities as Montclair and Clifton on the
south and Ridgewood, Prospect Park and
Hawthonie on the north. Yet its unique po-
sition in the city’s street system has, up to

date, been very inadequately appreciated, so
inadequately, in fact, that today it is almost
impossible for an automobile to use it — the
pavement is so bad. To realize its true im-
portance, Straight Street must be given an
increased width — fifty feet is entirely too
narrow for the traffic it will be called upon
to care for within a few years. It should be
widened to a width of at least eighty feet.
As its southern extremity it should, more-
over, be straightened so that it will connect
directly with Barclay Street. This will ob-
viate the necessity of making an awkward
turn on Main Street and thereby increase the
capacity of both Main and Straight Streets.

MARKET STREET.

Market Street is one of the oldest as well
as most important traffic thoroughfares of
the city. It leads out east from the business
center past the principal railroad station.
Some of the most important public and com-
mercial buildings are located on this street.
It is the direct thoroughfare to Hackensack
and Fort Lee and via Hackensack to Hoboken

.);>

and Jorsoy City. To the west of the biisinoss
contor, tlu' siroot onlors Sinaico Sti'cci
wluM'e it connects "witli l\1cl>ride Avenue by
which Little Falls and the country to the west
is reached.

From Spruce Street to Mill Street, MaiLet
Street is now fifty feet wide; from Mill Street
to Washing-ton Street, 60 feet wide, where it
expands into 90 feet and continues at that
width to Ramapo Avenue. East of that
street, it is 50 feet wide as far as Madison
Avenue. From Madison Avenue, east to
Mai’ket Street bridge, where it enters Bergen
County, the street has a width of 70 feet.

There is considerable traffic congestion in
the narrow portion of Market Street east of
Ramapo Avenue. It is proposed to remedy
this condition by widening the street on its
southerly side from its present width of 50
to 70 feet. The widening would make of
Market Street a thoroughfare not less than
70 feet wide in any part east of the business
center. Traffic would then move to and
from the center much more freely than at
present.

From Ramapo Avenue to Summer Street,
the buildings which would be cut are gener-
ally three-story frame and brick buildings
of considerable age. From Summer Sti-eet
to Pennington Street the buildings are mostly
two-story frame buildings which can in most
cases be moved back on the lot. From Pen-
nington Street to Madison Avenue, the widen-
ing would not occasion any building damage.

LAKEVIEW AVENUE.

Lakeview Avenue, 120 feet wide, the widest
street in the city, is an excellent connection
from Market Street, south through Clifton
into Passaic. East 37th Street would be the
pi-oper continuation of the street north into
Vreeland Avenue, where traffic could con
tinue through East 33rd Street, and the
bridge across the Passaic to Bellair and points
to the north and east. Unfortunately, the
Susquehanna Railroad is in the way and the
street was vacated in 1914 for a length of
325 feet south of 21st Avenue. Two one-

FIGURE 54. — Boulevard relocation and widening
Lakeview Avenue extension. Twenty-third Avenue
extension. First Avenue cutoffs.

story and one two-story buildings of little
value and which can easily be moved, have
been placed on this area. It is considered
that the importance of the direct continua-
tion of this avenue to the north of Market
Street warrants reclaiming the vacant portion
of East 37th Street, and provision of a cross-
ing at East 37th Street in the grade crossing
elimination plans of the Susquehanna Rail-
road.

THE BOULEVARD.

This avenue is already laid out for the most
part at a width of 100 feet along the west
shore of the Passaic River, but the several
breaks in its continuity destroy its useful-
ness, and consequently it has not been im-
proved.

The street is strategically located for de-
touring the heavy pleasure traffic from New
York City and points south, to the east of the
congested portions of the city, on its way to
Ridgewood, Tuxedo and points north.

Besides relieving congestion on other north
and south streets nearer the heart of the
city, it will furnish a very attractive and
scenic way which it is anticipated will attract
a considerable pleasure traffic when once it
is improved. Following the river, it will be
nearly level, and objectionable grades which
occur on other routes will be avoided. It
will also form an important link in a belt
traffic way round the city, connecting its
main thoroughfares.

The avenue has good connections to the
south of the city through Dundee Drive,
Lexington Avenue and Randolph Avenue to
the main thoroughfares on the south and via
the Wagaraw Bridge to Ridgewood, Tuxedo
and points north via Maple Avenue.

It is not believed that the citizens of Pater-
son will long tolerate the foul condition of the
river, which is constantly growing worse by
the diminution of the dry weather flow, and
the increased discharge of waste into the
stream. The proposed improvement pre-

sumes that the river will eventually be re-
claimed and made attractive.

In order to effect this improvement, it is
proposed to widen Weasel Road on the river
side from its present width of 70 feet to 100
feet, and park the areas intervening between
it and the river. From Market Street north
to East Side Park, the existing avenue 100
feet wide is made use of, and the areas to the
east bordering on the River are also to be
parked.

Through East Side Park, there is at pres-
ent a dirt roadway near the river bank. This
part of the park has been improved very littF
owing, no doubt, to the condition of the river.
A park roadway of adequate width is pro-
posed, nearly on the line of the dirt roadway
above mentioned, continuing the Boulevard
northwardly into East 43rd Street. From
Broadway north East 43rd Street would be
widened on its east side from 85 to 100 feet,
and the avenue would be continued on easy
curves over unimproved land somewhat ele-
vated above the river bank and from 50 to
200 feet back from the river. This location
is chosen rather than the Boulevard as now
laid out, in order to elevate the roadway and
thus obtain a wider outlook over the Passaic
Valley, as well as to obtain a park area along
the bank of the I'iver which will be of in-
estimable value to the residential area to the
west, when the river is reclaimed. All that
portion of the Boulevard heretofore laid out
on the river bank between East 43rd Street
and Tenth Avenue, as well as between East
31st Street and Fifth Avenue would be in-
cluded in the park area where not taken in
the new boulevard location.

The Boulevai’d is made continuous where
now broken at the Cramer & King Co.’s
works by curving it through Tenth Avenue
around the westei’ii side of this plant.

The street north to Fifth Avenue bounds
a residential area and added value will no
doubt be given to it for this purpose, by the
continuous Boulevard and park strip between
the Boulevard and the river. North of Fifth

Avenue, the adjacent property is industrial
and the Boulevard follows exisitinff lines
alono- the I'iver bank nearly to the Wag’araw
Bridge where the Boulevard is swung to the
west, cutting a one-story factory building in
order to make an adequate approach to that
bridge.

MORRIS AND ESSEX BOULEVARD.

The IMorris Canal extending from the Hud-
son River at Jersey City to the Delaware
River at Phillipsburg, has not been in use foi'
some years and is a very considerable barrier
to traffic as the antiquated bridges over the
canal are narrow and the approaches are vei y
abrupt with dangerous turns and steep
grades.

The canal has a nominal width of 40 feet
at the water surface, 25 feet bottom width
and a depth of 5 feet. The right of way aver-
ages about 66 feet in width. The canal is
level throughout Paterson, is about 100 feet
above its business center and averages some
15 feet below the Lackawanna Railroad which
parallels it on the west.

The canal winds through Paterson in ap-
proximately the arc of a semi-circle around
Garret Rock which is some 200 feet above the
canal, approaching the city in a northei'ly
direction and leaving it in a southwesterly
direction.

The Moriis Canal and Banking Company
and the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, its
lessee, are the ownei’s and occupants of the
Canah By the terms of the charter, the
State has the right to take the property in
1924 by paying the fair value thereof and,
by the terms of its charter, it would reveil to
the State in 1974.

Negotiations have })een in progress for
some time with a view to releasing to the
State most of the canal property. ft is ex-
pected that legislation in i-egard to the trans-
fer will be enacted at the present session of
the legislation.

It is important, therefore, to determine

FIGURE 55. — Morris and Essex Boulevard. Slater
Street straightening. Hoxsey Street widening.

what is the best public use to which the prop-
erty can be put. Its value to the State lai’ge-
]y lies in its continuity and the opportunity it
gives for removing the obstructing bridges
and improving the highways at the crossings.
After careful study of various suggested uses
it is believed that a continuous boulevard
from Branch Brook Park or Bloomfield to
Phillipsburg on the Delaware River will be
most satisfactoiy. This will not preclude
the use of parts ol' the canal for water sup])ly

pipe lines if found desirable. This boulevard
will give a fairly direct thoroughfare line
for the most part between Bloomfield and the
business section of Paterson by way of Bar-
clay Street and Marshall Street. The pres-
ent dangerous and obstructive bridges at
Marshall Street and Barclay Street should
be removed. The boulevard would cross these
sti’eets at their level with an improvement
of present grades. The elimination of the
grade crossings would be effected much more
satisfactorily than if the water way remained.
A park area is proposed on the west side of
the canal between Marshall and Barclay
Streets to include the bank on the west side.
Connection is also proposed with the existing
street system at Clay and Mill Streets, while
a park area now mostly unimproved property
and a part of it occupied by a playground
would be taken on the east side of the canal
to Slater Street and Grand Street, extending
from Spruce Street to about 200 feet east of
New Street. In connection with this im-
provement, Slater Street is given a more
direct connection into Grand Street and its
usefulness should be considerably increased.

At New Street, the present narrow and
ancient bridge would be removed, the inter-
secting thoi'oughfare brought to a common
grade and a square formed where the boule-
vard would also connect with Grand Street
and Hoxsey Street. This latter street would
be widened to 80 feet for a bridge connection
with the west side of the Passaic. To the
west of New Street, Barnes Street, adjoining
the canal on the noi’th and which carries a
street railway track, would be incorporated
within the limits of the boulevard.

NEWARK AVENUE.

Madison Avenue terminates on the south
at Main Street and there is at present no
satisfactory connection with Bloomfield Road
or Valley Road and the localities along these
roads.

It is proposed to supply this deficiency ])y

extending Madison Avenue across Main
Street into Newark Avenue, widening this
street on its easterly side fi'om sixty to
eighty feet and continuing it into Marshall
Street and the Morris and Essex Boulevard.

Madison Avenue with the break at the Sus-
quehanna Railroad removed and extended
into Newark Avenue then will become the
important artery connecting Ridgewood and
Montclair, which its location and width predi-
cate. When this improvement is carried
out, there should be little occasion for
through pleasure traffic between these local-
ities to pass through the congested portion of
the city.

YORK AVENUE.

This avenue, extending from Twelfth Ave-
nue to Putnam Street, is one of the ancient
highways of the city which has not been
obliterated by the rectangular street system.

Since it runs adjacent to and parallel with
the Susquehanna Railroad, and because it can
readily be connected with East 15th and East
16th Street on the north and East 18th Street
on the south, it can be made to form with
these streets an important traffic artery. It
then makes a traffic thoroughfare between
River Street and the Riverside section on the
north by easy grades through East 18th
Street to Market Street and points south.

The importance of this connection is large-
ly due to the fact that East 15th Street and
East 16th Street are the only streets running-
north and south between the Susquehanna
Railroad and East 27th Street which have
suitable grades for heavy trucking. All the
othei's go up and then down a hill some 50
feet high by considei'able grades.

East 16th Street, which is 60 feet wide,
forms a junction with York Avenue, having
a width of 50 feet, at Putnam Street. There
is an offset in these streets of about 40 feet
which it is proposed to remove by cutting-
through two and one-half blocks from 100
feet north of Keen Street to Lyon Street,

FIGURE 56. — York Avenue extension and widening.
Ninth Avenue cutoff.

which would involve moving' five frame
houses.

York Avenue, at the present time, is 50
feet wide. It is proposed to make it (50 feet
wide by widening on either side as indicated
on the sketch. A ti'iangular piece of prop-
erty is taken at 12th Avenue and the railroad
to make a direct connection with East 18th
Street.

Plans proposed for the elimination of grade

crossings on the Susfiuehanna liailroad show
Keen Street passing undei' the railroad and
when this project is carried out. Keen Street
and Ninth Avenue will make an important
east and west thoroughfare.

Governor Street and Eleventh Avenue also
form an important crosstown thoroughfare,
and to make the connection of these streets
as easy as practicable without interfer-
ing with traffic on other streets, it is pro-
posed to widen out York Avenue north of
Governor Street to the railroad property.

MADISON AVENUE.

Madison Avenue, 80 feet wide, is perhaps
the most important north and south thor-
oughfare in the city for pleasure traffic.
This traffic is very heavy during the summer
months. The usefulness of the street is
greatly impaired, however, by the break in
its continuity at the Susquehanna Railroad.
All traffic is forced to detour around this
break by shaip turns through narrow streets.
Undesirable interference with the normal
traffic on these streets is also a consequence
of the interruption. Only frame buildings of
considerable age are cut by this improvement.
In connection with this proposal, it is recom-
mended to extend Sixteenth Avenue east-
wardly over now vacant property into Madi-
son Avenue. This street, paralleling Park
Avenue, should serve to relieve its ti'affic
to some extent.

SIXTEENTH AVENUE AND
CROSHY PLAGE.

Park Avenue has to carry heavy traffic of
all classes — automobiles, busses and street
cai's. It is highly important to provide reliei'
for the street in i)arallel sti'eets to the great-
est extent possible. To provide such relief
is the main object of this improvement.
Ci'osby Place would be widened to 70 feet
and extended over railroad property undei'
the railroad tracks, which would be elevated
according to the railroad grade crossing

FIGURE 57.— Madison Avenue extension. Van Houten
Street extension. 16th Avenue Extension.

elimination plans. A connection would thus
be made at Market Street and Raili'oad Ave-
nue favorable for the diversion of traffic into
this avenue. To further increase its useful-
ness, it is proposed to extend this street over
unimproved property into Madison Avenue.
Much better outlets will be afforded both east
and west to all property on this sti'eet than
is the case at present.

MORTON STREET.

At present Morton Street has a length of
thi-ee blocks l)etween Straight Street and
Summei’ Sti'eet. In order to improve the
traffic circulation around the new railroad
station which has been proposed as a part of
the I'ailroad gi-ade crossing elimination plans,
as well as to furnish some relief to the Mar-
ket Street traffic, it is proposed to extend
Moilon Sti-eet under the elevated tracks of

the Erie Railroad at a width of 70 feet from
Straight Street to Railroad Avenue, passing
to the north of the Eastwood factory. To
fui'ther accomplish the purposes above men-
tioned, it is proposed to extend Morton Street
eastwardly to Market Street through a
corner of Sandy Hill Park.

EAST FIFTH STREET.

This improvement will afford a better
traffic thoroughfare from the industrial dis-
ti'icts on the west side of the river to the
industrial areas in the Riverside section of
the city as well as better connect them with
Fairlawn and points east. It will also more
fully utilize the Hillman Street and Sixth
Avenue bridges as well as improve the traffic
connection between the Riverside industrial
section and the downtown business section of
the city. To accomplish these aims, it is
proposed to eliminate a 100-foot offset in East
Fifth Street at Branch Street by directly
connecting the two portions of East Fifth
Street through unimproved property and to
extend it one block from Warren Street to
Keen Street, thus bringing it into River
Street.

VAN HOUTEN STREET.

Van Houten Street, extending from Mill
Street to East 18th Street, is in line with
14th Avenue, which runs from Madison Ave-
nue to East Side Park. These streets are
separated by a block on which are several
frame buildings and the tracks of the Sus-
quehanna Railroad. It is proposed to join
Van Houten Street and 14th Avenue by cut-
ting through the block. At least half of the
value of the obstructing buildings would be
taken in clearing the break in Madison Ave-
nue at this place. A crossing of the railroad
can l)e provided in plans for the elimination
of the railroad grade crossings. Fourteenth
Avenue is well built up. A direct traffic con-
nection with the heart of the city is import-
ant. This connection will also serve to make

FIGURE 58. — East Fifth Street extension. River
Street widening.

Van Houten Street and Fourteenth Avenue a
parallel of much importance to Broadway
and relieve it of considerable traffic originat-
ing to the south.

TWENTY-THIRD AVENUE.

Twenty-third Avenue should be an import
ant link in the traffic plan of the city. It is
l^roposed to cut off the northeast cornei' oi'
East Twenty-third Street and Madison Ave-
nue. This would permit a trolley now on
East Railway Avenue to be relocated so as
to run on 23rd Avenue to Ti'enton Avenue
and thence south to Crooks Avenue, thus
opening up this entire area for residential
development as well as serving the heavy in-
dustrial zone to the west.

A continuous thoroughfare is thereby ob-
tained via Beckwith Avenue, Alabama Ave-
nue and Market Street in no place less than
70 feet wide. This will put the southwest
section of the city in direct communication
with the Market Street Bridge.

These im])rovements together with that of
Newark Avenue furnish a through traffic
route from Bloomfield and Montclaii' via
Bloomfield Road and Valley Road, Newaik
Avenue (])roposed), Madison Avenue, Cali-
fornia Avenue and Market Street to eastei'ly
points via the Market Street bi-idge, shunting
the business portion of the city.

SUMMER STREET VIADUCT.

Summer Street, which is 80 feet wide from
Fulton Street north, stops at Keen Street.
Traffic to continue northerly on Summer
Street has to turn at right angles on Keen
Street, pi'ogress about 200 feet west and then
turn through a large angle into River Street.

To avoid these turns and the indirect traffic
route, in connection with the elimination of
the railroad grade crossings, it is proposed to
carry the railroad on a viaduct between Keen
Street and River Street. The railroad right
of way underneath the structure will then
be available for carrying Summer Street traf-
fic directly into River Street.

CLARK STREET.

Clark Street, were it not for the offset at
Market Street, would really be a continuation
of Church Street. This offset seriously
interferes with all the ti-affic using the three
intersecting streets. Traffic crossing from
Church to Clark or from Clark to Church, in-
stead of cutting the traffic on Market Street
at right angles must in either case join the
traffic on that street, unnecessarily congest-
ing it and slowing it down. The two turns
necessary to go from one street to another
are, moi'eover, exceptionally awkward and
dangerous. Much traffic i-ef rains from using
either street because of this offset.

If the southwest coi-nei' of Clark and Mar-
ket Streets weie cut off. Church and Clai'k
Sti-eets would be made i^i-actically a continu-
ous street, intersecting Market Street almost
at right angles and entii'ely obviating the two
turns now necessary to cross it. This would

almost afford the equivalent of another short
north and south street through the business
section extending all the way from Broadway
to De Grasse Street.

PASSAIC RIVER BRIDGES.

The City of Paterson is not only separated
in a measure from surrounding areas which
should be an integral part of its business
territory by political boundaries, but by the
Passaic River as well. This river surrounds
the main part of the city for two-thirds of
its circumference and it is only on the south
that bridges are not necessary for communi-
cation with the surrounding country. Garret
Rock and the Morris Canal offer such great
obstructions that the river crossings may be
said to extend along more than three-quartei's
of the circumference of the main portion of
the city available for outside communication.

The importance of the highway bridges
over the Passaic River in relation to its traf-
fic thoroughfares as well as to the business
interests and well being of the city is, there-
fore, manifest.

To the northwest across the river are the
Totowa and Haledon sections of the city, both
largely residential, and inhabited by a con-
sidei’able portion of the people working and
doing Inisiness in the city. This portion of
the city extends on both sides of the river
for about one-third of its length through and
around the city. Seven of the 14 highway
bridges spanning the Passaic within the city
limits connect this area with the main por-
tion of the city.

Beginning at the western end of the city,
the existing and proposed bridges, proceeding
down the river are as follows :

1. Lincoln Bridge — This bridge connects
McBride Avenue with Totowa Avenue and
Cumberland Avenue at the westei’ly limits of
the city.

2. Preakness Avenue Bridge — This is a
proposed bridge which would connect the
pi’oposed Morris and Essex Boulevaid, Grand
Street and Little Falls Road over the Passaic

into Preakness Avenue at the easterly side
of West Side Park, and into the proposed
Fallsway Memorial. This bridge would
form an important link in the system of ave-
nues contemplated in the major street plan.

3. Spruce Street Bridge — This bridge,
which is immediately above the Falls, gives
an excellent view of them, and connects Mar-
ket Street through Spruce Street and Wayne
Avenue with the Totowa section of the city.
Its north approach will be on the proposed
Fallsway Memorial.

4. Prospect Street Bridge — Prospect
Street at the present time is a street of fair
width and comparatively little traffic. It
more nearly parallels Main Street than any
other in its most congested section. It is
proposed to make this street a parallel to
Main Street and relieve that street of con-
gested traffic by bridging the river at the
foot of Prospect Street over to the Island.
From the Island, the bridge would branch one
leg entering Hamburgh Avenue and the other
turning into the proposed Fallsway Memorial.

5. West Street Bridge — This bridge, the
most important in the city, is a continuation
of Main Street into Hamburgh Avenue. Part
of its heavy traffic would be diverted over
the proposed Prospect Street bridge.

6. Main Street Bridge — The location of
this bridge indicates that it should be of first
importance, directly connecting as it does.
Main Street with North Main Street and
points to the north. Main Street, however,
between Broadway and Bank Street is only
47 feet wide and between Fair Street and
Hamilton Avenue is occupied by so many
market teams that through traffic is throt-
tled to such an extent that the longer course
through Bridge Street and over the Arch
Street bridge is generally preferred. The
bridge accommodates a large amount of local
trucking however.

7. Arch Street Bridge — Ai'ch Street
bridge at the present time carries the trolley
lines, busses and most of the pleasure traffic
from the business center to Hawthorne and

points north. W'hen l>rid}>e Street is extend-
ed and widened as i)i'oi)osed, the trad’ic will
arrive more directly at this bridge and the
tralVic will be even heavier but most of the
tributary traffic is now forced to use this
bridge.

8. Straigiit Street Kridge — When the
contemplated widening and extension of
Straight Street is completed, a through route
to one side of the congested district will be
provided for automobile traffic from Mont-
clair, Bloomfield, Newark, etc. to Haledon,
Hawthorne, Ridgewood and points north over
this bridge. This bridge would then take a
larger share of the burden which now falls
mainly on the Arch Street bridge.

9. Hillman Street Bridge — This is a mod-
ern steel bridge with little traffic. It con-
nects the Haledon section of the city wdth the
Riverside industrial section and affords ample
communication between them. Traffic will
distribute itself over this bridge by the pro-
posed improvements in East Fifth Street.

10. Sixth Avenue Bridge — This bridge
also connects the Haledon section of the city
with the Riverside industrial section. Con-
siderable trucking passes over this bridge be-
tween industries on either side of the river.
The contemplated improvement of East 5th
Sti’eet will facilitate this traffic.

11. East 19th Street Bridge — This bridge
connects River Street, East 19th Street and
Madison Avenue with Hawthorne, Ridgewood
and points north via Lincoln Avenue. There
are, unfortunately, abrupt turns in the street
approaches to this bridge and its alignment
introduces other turns, so that the course of
traffic from any of the streets in Paterson
into Lincoln Avenue is very ii-regular. The
bridge, too, is hidden by frame buildings so
that it cannot readily be seen when ap-
proached.

It is proposed to make the inadequate ap-
proaches more satisfactoiy by removing the
th}'ee frame buildings in the way of a direct
approach from River Street, as well as cut
off the southwest corner of Madison Avenue

at Eii'st Avenue and the noitheast coiiiei- of
East 19th Street and First Avenue so that
the traffic fi-om Madison Avenue can use the
bridge with safety and comfort.

12. Wagaraw Bridge — This is the most
important bridge for the Riverside section
leading to Ridgewood and points north via
Maple Avenue. The larger part of the heavy
summer traffic on Madison Avenue moves
north via this bridge, turning a right angle
at Madison Avenue. It is proposed to make
this turn less abrupt and improve the route
via this bridge by cutting off the southeast
corner of Madison Avenue and First Avenue.

The proposed Boulevard should take a con-
siderable part of the large north and south
pleasure traffic which makes use of this
bridge and to provide a satisfactory approach,
it is proposed to widen the Boulevard some-
what to the west so that it will be 100 feet
wide to the w’est of the wing wall of the
bridge.

13. Fifth Avenue Bridge — This bridge
connects the Riverside industrial section with
Fairlawn, Paramus and points to the east,
also via the Paramus Road with communities
to the north and south as well. The bridge
does not directly connect with Fifth Avenue
as there is an offset of more than 100 feet at
the Boulevard.

Traffic on the projected Boulevard would
be interfered with to a greater or less extent
by this cross traffic on Fifth Avenue turning
into and out of the Boulevard. Consequent-
ly, it would be well when the present bridge
is replaced, to consider a new location con-
tinuing Fifth Avenue directly across into the
street south of Fairlawn Avenue.

14. East 33rd Street Bridge — This bridge
connects 33rd Street, which is an extension
of Vreeland Avenue and Lakeview Avenue,
via the proposed extension of East 37th
Street, into Bellaii' and points to the north in
Bergen County.

15. Eleventh Avenue Bildge — This is a
l)roposed bridge to convey traffic on the pro-
posed cross town thoroughfare north of

FIGURE 59. — The flow of traffic fluctuates momentarily. The automobile traffic of one fifteen minute period is
often double that of the preceeding fifteen minute period. The volume on the two sides of a street varies
enormously.

Broadway through Govei'uor Street and
Eleventh Avenue across the Passaic into Ber-
gen County. With suitable connections to
the east, it should carry a considerable part
of the traffic to and from parts of the city
to the north of Broadway which now crosses
the Broadway Bridge.

16. Broadway Bridge — This important
bridge over which the traffic between the
central business section of the city and points
to the west passes, via Areola, is not modified
in the plans proposed. Other bridges are
proposed to the north and south, however,
which take part of its traffic.

17. Park Avenue Bridge — This is a pro-
loosed extension of Park Avenue across the
Passaic River and would be a necessary link-
in a thoroughfare continuing Park Avenue
thi'ough at present undeveloped territory in
Bergen County.

18. Eighteenth Avenue Bridge — This is
a proposed bridge to carry Eighteenth Ave-
nue across the Passaic River. This bridge
with other proposed bridges in the vicinity
are planned to give better communication be-
tween Paterson and localities to the east. To
effect this 18th Avenue should be continued
in Bergen County to Passaic Junction.

19. Market Street Bridge — This import-
ant bridge directly connecting the business
centre of Paterson through Dundee Lake and
Rochelle Park with Hackensack as well as
points to the south and west, is given better
approaches from the Lakeview section by the
proposed plans. The proposed connection
of Alabama Avenue with Market Street and
the changes in Newark Avenue should bring
the Lakeview section of the city in much
closer relation to Bergen County points via
this bridge.

VEHICULAR TRAFFIC STREAMS

MAIN & MARKET STREETS

8A.M-6P.M AUGUST 15,1921
SCALE - VEHICLES

JITNECVS

FIGURE 60. — Removing the jitneys and trucks from Main Street will very appreciably lessen congestion. The
extension of Marshall Street would, moreover, enable through traffic to avoid Main Street.

CHAPTER V.

THE ADMINISTRATIVE AND FINANCIAL MACHINERY FOR
CARRYING OUT THE PLAN.

Quite as important as the city plan itself
is the financial and legal plan devised to
carry out the improvements contemplated by
the plan. How to apply the city’s resources
toward the carrying out of a plan in a man-
ner that will neither embarrass the city’s
finances, endanger the solvency of individual
pi'opei'ty owners, nor unduly disturb the con-
duct of business during the execution of the
plan are administrative problems of major
importance which must be thought out before
any real plan can be undertaken with a view
to successful completion. Both the city and
the property owner must be in a position to
pay for the plan or the plan can, of course,
never be realized. It is this homely fact
which necessitates the consideration of such
technical but none the less fundamental mat-
ters as the establishment of proposed street
lines upon the city map, the control of im-
provements within the lines of mapped
streets, condemnation, damages, special as-
sessments, assessment bonds, debt limits —
indeed, the entire administrative and financial
machinery necessary to be set in motion for
the carrying out of the plan.

The Establishment of Proposed
Street Lines.

’fhe fii’st step in carrying out a street plan
must of necessity be the establishment of
the proposed street lines and their incoipora-
tion as a part of the city plan. Only through
placing the projected widenings and exten-
sions upon the official map of the city can
owners develop their pinperty in accordance
with the city’s program of improvement.

The mere mapping of the proposed im-
pi'ovements will injure no one. Nobody will
be I'esti’ained from the free use and enjoy-

ment of his property ; every plot can be used
in exactly the same manner as the owner
would anyhow whether or not the projected
street lines were laid down upon the city map.
But as the mapping of the proposed streets
places the owner under no legal obligation
to observe the plan, neither is the city obliged
to observe it. Mapping a street over private
property is a quite different thing from tak-
ing private pioperty and, until property is
actually taken, there need be no compensa-
tion. If owners have the right to disregard
the plan, so, too, has the city — it may change
or modify the plan, or it may refrain from
ever carrying out the improvement if it so
elects.

If this is the law, wherein then, is the
advantage of placing the proposed street
widenings and extensions upon the city map ?
The chief outstanding advantage lies in the
fact that it gives the city a constructive
program of development, it focuses public
attention upon a group of co-ordinated
impi’ovements which when executed will fit
into a comprehensive scheme promoting the
highest development of all parts of the com-
munity. If they are not placed upon the
map, they will never be carried out, and if
they are not placed upon the map until the
city is ready to carry them out, their execu-
tion is going to be deferred for many years
after the time their execution would other-
wise be possible.

The fact that these improvements have
been placed upon the official map after an
exhaustive survey of the needs of the whole
community will, moreover, tend to prevent
the spending of public moneys upon relatively
unimpoi'tant improvements.

All owners without exception are anxious
to improve their property in a manner to in-

croaso its valuo. Until an odicial map is
adopted, they are denied the privilege eithei'
of improving their jn-opeily in a manner to
give its value the maximum enhancement or
of helping the community to attain a compre-
hensive plan.

Immediate Acquisition of Vacant
Land Within Proposed Streets.

All vacant land within projected street
lines should be immediately acquired by the
city. Such land presumably will never be
cheaper to acquire than now. So long as the
city refrains from acquiring the land with-
in mapped streets, the owner, of course, has
the right to use it as he chooses. The land
is his until it is actually taken by the city and
until that time he has not only a right to
develop it and to erect buildings upon it, but
a right to put up buildings with the single
ol)ject of extracting larger damages from the
city when his property is taken.

For the city to procrastinate in taking the
land that is at present vacant within mapped
streets, whether such streets be widenings or
extensions, is in effect to give tacit approval
to its development without reference to the
official plan. If the map may be changed
and the streets completely abandoned without
any indemnity against loss being guaranteed
the owner on account of compliance with the
plan in the development of his property, cer-
tainly the owner cannot be blamed for taking
his own counsel in improving his land and
ignoring the mapped street.

Justice to the owner of vacant land within
projected street lines who will suffei' serious
loss in observing the plan should the city
alter its intention of ultimately taking his
property, as well as justice to the tax])ayei',
who through the refusal of the municii)ality
to take such lands immediately, would
through rising land values and the ei’ection
of costly buildings be burdened with increased

taxes, both demand that the land now unbuilt
u])on be i)ui'chased without delay.

The ac(|uisition of such lands is, moreover,
the best pledge a city can give of its intention
to carry out its program.

The appropriation of so much of the front
portion of vacant lots, or of the forecourts of
improved lots, as might be necessary to afford
the increased width to the widened thorough-
fare, would make the owners in front of the
widened portions, distributed here and there
as they would be throughout the length of
the new street, the staunchest advocates urg-
ing the quickest possible completion of the
improvement.

With part of the street widened, the owners
along the widened portions would never rest
until the entire thoroughfare were widened.
There would be no tui’ning back from the
plan ; in fact, there could be no turning back
from the plan because the city would stand
irrevocably committed to it.

Gradual Recession of Fronts in Built
Portions of Widenings.

The acquisition of the vacant land within
the projected lines of a street, of course,
would still leave the built-on land to be ac-
quired before the street is completed. Alter-
ations in street lines are at best always
difficult and expensive but in the case of im-
proved properties, they are doubly difficult
and expensive. In Paterson, the land values
exceed the building values in very few local-
ities ; indeed, outside of the business sections,
the building values are almost invai’iably
greatei’ than the land values and in many
cases, as where the land is improved with
expensive factories, this excess is manifold.
The prudence of proceeding most cautiously
with the widening or extension of streets
through built-up localities is thei'efore
obvious.

When it comes to the extension of a sti’eet,
very little choice is left to the city — to get

any benefit at all from the street, it must
expropriate both the vacant and the improved
lands at once. Unlike a street to be widened,
there is in the case of a street extension, no
existing sti'eet, not even a narrow one, to be
used by traffic. The use of the thoroughfare
cannot, therefore, go on hand in hand with
its acquisition — all of it has to be acquired
before any part of it can be used even to the
slightest degree. Every consideration of
prudence and expediency demands that an
extension be carried out as an integral im-
pi'ovement without delay.

But in the case of a street widening, econ-
omy demands — unless the increased width is
required at once — that the widening be made
as and when the existing buildings are de-
molished and reconstructed. At that time
the new building can be made to recede to
the new street lines, thus relieving the city
of all damages for buildings.

This method of widening streets has been
exercised on several different occasions in
Philadelphia. The power to proceed in this
manner is conferi'ed upon the cities of New
Jersey by Chapter 137, Laws of 1920.

It would be disastrous to the city to require
that all the streets in need of widening should
be widened in their entirety at once. By
gradual widening as and when old buildings
are replaced by new ones, progress is made
step by step towards a wider street without
unduly straining either the city’s or the prop-
erty owner’s finances.

Platting the new or widened street upon
the city plan interferes with no one in the
use and enjoyment of his property until he
comes to rebuild. This may be in a year,
ten years, or a hundred years. But when the
property owner does rebuild, his building
must recede to the new street line. It is
then that he is injured, if he is injured at all ;
and it is then that his land is taken for public
use, and he is entitled to have his damages
assessed.

The instant an old building is torn down,
the city takes that part of the plot within

FIGURE 61. — Note how the City Hall trolley loop con-
gests the narrow portion of Ellison Street between Main
and Washington Streets.

the widened street for public use. Existing
buildings are not interfered with. Immed-
iately upon the destruction of the old build-
ing, the city takes possession. Recession
follows upon the rebuilding or altering of the
front of the buildings now erected. The mo-
ment this rebuilding is commenced is there-
fore the moment of taking which gives the
person whose land is taken the right to
damages.

Making Improvements Pay
for Themselves.

Judicious expenditure on a well-thought
out city plan usually results in an apprecia-
tion of neighboring land values that is at

least equal to the sum expended upon its
execution. In some iustauces, the enhance-
ment in nearby values, may even exceed the
cost of an imi)rovement.

Thron.eii the assessment of benefits, a city
plan may, to a laro-e extent be made to pay
for itself without encroaching upon the
mnniciiiality’s borrowing power, increasing
the general tax I'ate, or throwing new finan-
cial burdens upon those least able to bear
them.

It is a rare improvement that does not con-
fer some local benefit. Such local benefit as
an improvement confers upon neighboring
property should be assessed, the assessment
being limited only by the cost of the improve-
ment and the amount of benefit confeired.
The city should assume no part of the cost
where the local benefit is sufficient to pay
the whole expense. Only in instances where
the local benefit does not equal the cost of
the improvement, should the city at large
participate in the expense. When the city
assumes part of the cost, the sum assumed
should be limited by the amount that the
local benefit falls short of defraying the whole
cost.

Property can be assessed only for the bene-
fit derived from an improvement. The as-
sessment may not be for benefit that is
speculative and distant or dependent upon

remote and uncertain contingencies. ’’I’he
benelit must be substantial, certain and call-
able of being realized within a reasonable and
convenient time. An assessment cannot be
levied if, in the opinion of the courts, the
measure is premature and will cost more than
the proprietors of the adjacent land will be
benefited by the improvement.

To be assessed, property must be of such
a nature that its value is capable of actual
enhancement in consequence of an improve-
ment. Unless this enhancement in value is
susceptible of reasonably accurate measure-
ment, the property cannot be assessed. An
assessment should represent the difference
between the value of the property before and
after the improvement. In levying an assess-
ment, the enhanced value of property by
reason of the improvement should be taken
into consideration.

The assessment of benefits will make great
improvements immediately possible which if
paid for by bond issues would have to be de-
ferred for many years. The city’s borrowing
capacity is limited by law to seven per cent,
of its assessment roll. At present the city
is within one per cent, of its debt limit.
Obviously the city’s borrowing margin is un-
able to finance the improvements I’ecommend-
ed in this report.

CHAPTER VI.
EXCESS CONDEMNATION.

Excess condemnation is a city planning
power that not only Paterson but every city
in the state should possess. Without it, the
benefit that may be conferred by an improve-
ment is often to a very large extent lost.

Under the present limitations of our state
constitution, a city in projecting a street im-
provement is prohibited from taking more
land than the minimum absolutely necessary
for the proposed widening or extension. No
matter what condition the adjoining property
is left in when a street is widened or extend-
ed, the city is forbidden to take more land
than that which lies within the two lines of
the proposed street. The property fronting
upon the street may be cut up into plots so
irregular in shape and so small in area as to
be practically useless, yet the municipality is
powerless to take effective steps towards the
replotting of the land which must occur be-
fore the full benefit of the improvement can
be enjoyed.

If the city had the power to take excess
lands, it could, in condemning land for the
street, not only condemn the land required
for the street itself but so much additional
land as might prove desirable to form suit-
able building plots contiguous to the new
street. Sometimes, where a portion of a lot
is taken, the value of the entire parcel must
be paid. In such instances, the city would
certainly do better to acquire the fee to the
entire lot.

The Massachusetts Committee on Eminent
Domain stated the case for the replotting of
remnants most ably in the following words:

“The land abutting on any existing street
is divided and arranged in lots, which as well
as the circumstances have admitted, are
adapted to the street in its present condition,
and the buildings thei'eon are constructed in
conformity therewith. Any widening of the

street not only destroys the existing build-
ings, but, by reducing the size of abutting
lots, leaves the residues of remnants of many
of them in such shape and size as to be entire-
ly unsuited for the erection of proper build-
ings unless and until these remnants have
been united with the adjoining properties,
generally with those in the rear, which are
thus enabled to extend out to the new street
lines.

“The same condition is found, and fre-
quently even to a greater extent, when a new
thoroughfare is laid out through existing
l)locks covered with buildings.

“Hence, when an existing street is widened
or a new thoroughfare is laid out under the
present system, the lots on one or both sides
of the new or widened street are left in such
condition that, until a re-arrangement can be
made, no suitable buildings can be erected,
and the public benefit to be derived from the
improvement is in great measure lost.”

So serious and far-reaching in their effect
are these disastrous economic consequences
resulting from the present method of widen-
ing old and laying out new streets, that they
furnish the strongest argument in favor of
excess condemnation.

The maps of almost any street widening oi'
extension demonstrate the advantage of ex-
cess condemnation. They graphically pre-
sent the infinitesimal morsels, the narrow,
elongated gores, and the shallow remnants
with diagonal fronts of varying widths, so
frequently left by street improvements. In
some instances, the angles are not right
angles ; and the opposite sides of the same lot
are neither parallel nor equal. When Delan-
cey Street in New York was widened to pro-
vide for the bridge approach a tapering strip
with an area of some 90.8 square feet was
left extending along the street for more than

VEHICULAR TRAFFIC

MAIN & VAN HOUTEN

STREAMS

STREETS

eA ts/i-6P.M. June: 23,1921

SCALE - VEHICLES

FIGURE 62. — Van Houten Street occupies a position midway between a one-way and a two-way street.
Traffic at intersections of two two-way streets moves iri 12 different directions. At Van Houten Street it moves
in 9 directions. At an intersection of a one-way and two-way street it moves in 7; at an intersection of two
one-way streets it moves in 4 directions.

one hundred feet with an average width of
less than eleven inches. Several other strips
less than ten feet in width were left fronting
along the widened thoroughfare for an equal
distance. These strips robbed the lots ad-
joining them in the rear of their natural
frontage on Delancey Street.

The following are examples of plots left by
improvements actually made in New York:

At the corner of Elizabeth and Delancey
Streets a triangular segment 9.10x1.51 feet
in dimension, or 6.87 square feet in area; be-
tween Mulberry Street and Cleveland Place
on Delancey Street, a segment 1.47x8.98, or
6.59 square feet in area ; between Barclay and
Vesey Streets on West Broadway, a segment
2.6x13.5, or 17.27 square feet in area; on
Prince Street and Flatbush Avenue, one 4.3x
10.3 or 21.96 square feet in area; on Lafa-
yette Street and Flatbush Avenue, one 1.7x
6.4 or 5.28 square feet in area; and on Lafa-
yette and Pearl Streets one 4.8x9. 2, or 21.63
square feet in area.

It is self-evident that the utility for com-
mercial purposes of the lots fronting on these
street extensions and widenings was greatly
impaired. Lots which, if united under single
ownership, would afford sites for substantial
business blocks commensurate with the im-
portance of the street, and which would bring
in large rents, are now on or very near the
margin of no-rent land. They are so small
and irregular in size as to be totally unfit for
improvement. “There are streets in New
York today,” says Mr. Lawson Purdy, “which
have been widened for ten years but still look
as though they had been devastated by an
earthquake. The reason is that when the
map is inspected it is found that there are all
sorts of small bits of land in separate owner-
ships just as they were when the street was
widened.”

Since each parcel, by the mere fact of its
adjacence, commands the values of the neigh-
boring plots, every owner becomes, as it were,
a monopolist. Knowing the strategic posi-
tion of his own remnant and that its union

with any other would immediately, without
any effort on his own part, result in a greater
value than the sum of the two separately,
each proprietor over-estimates the true im-
portance of his own plot and shrewdly bar-
gains to get not only the proportion that his
own parcel contributes to this increased val-
ue, but also as much more as he is able to
wring from the purchaser. Not succeeding
in his designs by legitimate means, the owner,
if he be unscrupulous, sometimes erects so
objectionable a building on his land or puts
the land to such a use as practically to coerce
the adjoining owner into either purchasing it
at an exorbitant price or selling his own at a
great sacrifice. The limited power of emin-
ent domain, heretofore existing, has often
served to make the ultimate development of
the city dependent upon petty jugglery.

In some instances, remnants owned by
estates may be so tied up as to make it im-
possible to sell or develop them.

Until a concentration of ownership takes
place, the enhancement in value of the real
estate fronting on the improvement is held in
abeyance; if the separate parcels are not
united, the increased value never matures at
all. Sometimes the increase which would
naturally be expected is not enjoyed by any-
one to its full extent. Even though the
property owners are deterred from realizing
upon the improvement, they are, neverthe-
less, obliged to pay the special assessments
levied to pay its cost. Excess condemnation
not only relieves the land owners from this
burden, but accelerates the city’s growth and
prosperity by insuring the quick and sure
development of its thoroughfares.

Excess condemnation is of benefit not only
to the community, but frequently to the priv-
ate owner as well. The Massachusetts Com-
mittee on Eminent Domain puts it thus:

“It frequently happens that an owner, the
greater part of whose estate is necessarily
taken for a public work, would prefer not to
be left with the remnant on his hands, and if
an opportunity were offered, would volun-

7 ‘.\

FIGURE 63. — Map of Paterson 1840. The causes of present day street congestion in Paterson are to be found in the totai iack of ali pianning fifty, eighty
and a hundred years ago. The communities suburban to Paterson are now deveioping without regard to any pian just as Paterson did.

tarily request the city to take the whole
estate. Many people recognize that thei’e is
less opportunity for differences of opinion
upon the question of market value of a whole
estate than over the more complicated ques-
tion of the value of the portion which has
been taken, and the damag’es to the remainder
by reason of such taking ; and hence a system
under which the city would acquire the whole
estate would be productive of greater ease in
the settlement of damages, and less likelihood
of litigation over the question involved.”

To secure the power of excess condemna-
tion, the constitution of the state will have
to be amended. Immediate steps should be
taken towards this end.

Within the past few years five states. New
York, Massachusetts, Ohio, Wisconsin and
Rhode Island, have adopted constitutional
amendments relative to excess condemnation.
This fact alone suggests how important the
power of excess condemnation is to proper
street planning.

The New York amendment is submitted as
a desirable model for New Jersey to adopt.

It reads as follows :

“The legislature may authorize cities to
take more land and property than is needed
for actual construction in the laying out,
widening, extending or relocating of parks,
public places, highways or streets; provided,
however, that the additional land and prop-
erty so authorized to be taken shall be no
more than sufficient to form suitable building
sites abutting on such park, public place,
highway or street. After so much of the
land and property has been appropriated for
such park, public place, highway or street as
is needed therefor, the remainder may be sold
or leased.”

With the adoption of such an amendment
to the state constitution, the planning powers
of the city will be considerably strengthened.
Today, a city projecting a program of street
widenings and extensions stands in danger of
being ruined by its projected improvements.
Excess condemnation in enabling it to replot
the land contiguous to a proposed improve-
ment stimulates development.

( HAPTKK VII.

SrK(’I A I . ASS P]SSMKNTS.

Probably no city has had more experience
in assessing- the benefits to defray the cost of
street improvements than New York. A
brief survey of the methods used by the large
metropolis cannot fail to be of the greatest
help to every municipality in framing its own
policy on the subject.

Street openings and widenings have been
assessed in New York since 1793. For the
past hundred years, the damages have been
estimated by three commissioners appointed
by the Supreme Court. One of these com
missioners designated by the Court as the
Commissioner of Assessments, has assessed
the benefits. This procedure finally proved
so unsatisfactory that it was abolished.
Commencing in 1917, all damages and benefits
in street and park proceedings have been
ascertained by the Supreme Court without a
jury.

Assessments are estimated separately by
lots and not by blocks, except in the case of
acreage, where they are levied according to
ownership. This practice is followed even
though the land adjacent to an improvement
is held in large tracts. The reason for doing
this is that lots frequently change ownershi])
during the progress of an assessment. To
estimate the benefits by tracts instead of by
lots would not only inconvenience the ownei-s
in paying their assessments, but would also
give the city difficulty in apportioning them.

The benefits and damages must in each case
be assessed separately. It is not sufficient
to report the excess of one over the other.
Originally the benefits were set off against
the damages but this practice did not provide
adequate data for the coi-rection of errors in
the estimate and assessment. This defect
in the statute was remedied more thari
seventy-five years ago.

The Benefit Area.

The power to fix the benefit ai-ea was in
the hands of the commissioners until 1906.
In that year it was transferred to the Board
of Estimate and Apportionment. The com-
missioners had for a long time practiced lay-
ing out large benefit areas to avoid large
assessments for the excessive awards which
they so frequently granted. By giving the
Board of Estimate the power to limit the
assessment area, it was hoped that the com-
missioners would become more prudent in
their awards. The amendment was also in-
tended to secure uniform treatment for dif-
ferent proceedings.

When the commissioners fixed the assess-
ment area, it was nothing unusual for a par-
cel to be assessed for several street openings
— in some instances as many as five or six
separate proceedings. The districts fre-
quently included several blocks on each side
of the improvement. They also extended a
like distance longitudinally beyond the im-
provement. To remedy this situation, the
Board of Estimate, under the authority of
this charter amendment, immediately adopt-
ed a set of uniform rules to govern it in all
proceedings.

Disti'ibiition of Benefits Between
Different Areas.

The benefits may be apportioned between
districts of special benefit, one or more bor-
oughs, or parts of boroughs, and the city at
large. T^evies against one or moi e boroughs
or the city at large are in the natui-e of fiat
rate assessments and collected with the an-
nual real estate tax. This obviates the
necessity of preparing maps to show the rela-

tion of each parcel of property assessed to
the improvement.

The rules controlling the benefit area and
the apportionment of assessments in street
openings are most elaborate. Under these
rules the assessment area is generally deemed
to include one-half the area between the
street to be opened and the nearest parallel
street having the same or a greater width.
Except in unusual cases, the local area of
assessment is limited by a line not more than
1,000 feet from the improvement.

When the local area is divided into zones,
the primary area is deemed to be the prop-
erty fronting on the improvement to a depth
of 100 feet. The primary area is not assessed
for acquiring more land than a street having
a width of 60 feet, plus 25 per cent, of the
actual excess over that width up to a maxi-
mum of 80 feet. Neither borough nor city
I'elief is extended unless the pi'imary area
will otherwise be required to pay for more
than the equivalent of 80 feet. In determin-
ing the assessment, the street is considered
as being its actual width plus the value of the
building damage expressed in terms of equiv-
alent street width of the same value based on
the aggregate allowance for undedicated
areas. The assumption is that a share of
the expense equivalent to paying for a street
80 feet wide represents the limit of local
benefit. The percentage of cost assessed
locally is, therefore, 100 per cent, for 60-foot
streets, 89 per cent, for 70-foot street, 81 per
cent, for 80-foot streets, 75 per cent, for 90-
foot streets, 70 per cent, for 100-foot streets,
62 pel' cent, for 120-foot streets, 57 per cent,
for 140-foot streets, 53 per cent, for 150-foot
streets, and 40 per cent, for 200-foot streets.

The secondary area may not be assessed at
a propoi'tionately greater rate than the pri-
mary area. The basis for this assessment is
55 per cent, on the first fourth of the distance
to the boundary of the primary area, 80 per
cent, on the first half of the distance, and 93
per cent, on the first three-fourths of the
distance.

FIGURE 64. — Note the difference in the peak hour on
different streets.

Neither borough nor city benefit is recog-
nized subject to the above provisions unless
the street has a width exceeding 80 feet and
borough or city benefit is manifest. City
benefit is not recognized unless the street is
more than 100 feet wide. Exception to this
rule may, however, be made in unusual cases.
It is expected that where benefit to more than
one borough or where benefit to the city is
recognized, at least 50 per cent, of the benefit
not assessed locally must be assumed by the
borough in which the improvement is located.
Several exceptions have, however, been made
to this rule. Any expense placed upon the
city by reason of damage to buildings is de-
ducted from the relief afforded the local area.
Where the benefit area is the depth of a nor-
mal lot and the narrow dimension of the lot
fronts upon the improvement, the assess-
ment is a simple matter. Each lot, other
things being equal, bears its proportionate
part of the assessable cost subject to the limi-
tations imposed by law.

Where the greater dimension of the lot,
however, fronts upon the improvement, four
strips are laid out on either side of the im-
provement, a depth of 25 feet being allotted
to each strip. Each of these strips bears a
diminishing per cent, of the assessable cost,
the exact per cent, varying according to the
circumstances in the particular case. The

FIGURE 65. — The City Hall trolley loop prevents Wash-
ington Street from being made a two-way street.

minimum and usual percentage assessed
against the first strip is 60 per cent, of the
assessable cost, against the second 20 per
cent., against the third 12.5 per cent, and
against the fourth 7.5 per cent. The maxi-
mum percentage assessed against the first
sti’ip rarely exceeds 80 per cent, of the
assessable cost.

Where the benefit area exceeds the depth
of the normal lot, the assessable cost is pro-
rated between a primary and a secondary
area of assessment, the primary area consist-
ing of the first 100 feet abutting on the im
provement and the secondary area of the land
back of this 100 feet. The amount charged
against the primary area is assessed as if the
benefit did not exceed the depth of a normal
lot, the land l)eing su!)divided into strips and
each strip bearing a diminishing per cent, of
the cost assessed against the area. The
amount charged against the secondary area
is assessed, not by strips, but by lots. The
assessments in this area are made arbiti'arily,
the maximum assessment levied on the lot
nearest the improvement being less than that
charged against the fourth strip in the pri-
mary area, and the minimum assessment
levied on the lot most i-emote from the
impi'ovement being not less than $5.

The borough assessment act enables the
city to avoid an increase in its bonded indebt-

edness by i)aying cash for its improvements.
The increase in the city or boi’ough tax I'ate
I'esulting from this policy might, in the case
of lai-ge assesments, be so gi-eat as to imi)ose
a very serious burden upon the individual tax-
payer. This is despite the fact that the
board may in its discretion make these assess-
ments payal)le in five annual installments.
Although this has not happened, yet an en-
deavor has l)een made to anticipate this situa-
tion by limiting the amount of charges that
may be incurred in any one year. Borough
assessments are levied against all property,
no distinction being made between land,
buildings or personal property.

The Half- Value Rule.

Since 1840, the commissioners have been
prohibited from imposing any assessment
upon a plot in excess of one-half its taxed
value.

This provision has saddled a large shai'e of
the cost of many improvements upon the city,
especially in those instances where the prop-
erty values have been grossly underassessed.
Before real estate was assessed at its full
value, as now, the effect of this restriction
was to limit the actual assessment for benefit
against property at a figure below one-half
of its true value. Tn the outlying sections it
was formerly no uncommon occurrence to find
property assessed at a mere fraction of its
real value. In such cases the assessments
for benefit very often did not exceed one-
eighth or one-tenth of the full value. To
bifng the assessments legally within the
scope of this limitation, a tendency develoi)ed
among the commissioners to extend the bene-
fits ovei' vei'y large areas.

1 0 remedy this situation the charter was
amended at the time of consolidation to j)ro-
vide that the assessments should in no case
exceed one-half the value placed upon the
l)i'operty by the assessment officials. The
manner in which the assessment officials are
to ari'ive at this value is unrestricted by law.

They are not required to take the valuation
of the tax commissioners.

One Third of Buildings Assessed
Upon the City.

The discretion of assessing on the city any
portion of the cost, not exceeding one-third,
of the buildings taken in street proceedings
has been vested in the commissioners for a
very long time. This right, however, does
not extend to any other improvements than
buildings.

In the earlier openings, the Commissioners
were usually more ready to assess a portion
of this cost upon the city in the case of longi-
tudinal than in the case of cross streets.
The former being the main traffic thorough-
fares, wei’e assumed to confer a greater gen-
eral benefit upon the city than the latter, and
consequently more properly chargeable in
part against the public treasury. This
policy has, however, not been followed for
many years.

Buildings Within Projected Street Lines.

The city at present exercises no authority
over the erection of improvements within
projected street lines. The city plan was for
many years effectively controlled through a
statutory provision, prohibiting the payment
of compensation for buildings constructed
within proposed streets. Until thirty years
ago, the courts sustained the constitutionality
of this clause. Now, however, such a pro-
vision is considered invalid on the theory that
it imposes a restriction upon the use of prop-
erty which amounts to an encumbrance. The
courts have held it unconstitutional on the
ground that it deprives an owner of the bene-
ficial use and free enjoyment of his property,
or that it at least imposes a restraint upon
such use and enjoyment as materially to
affect its value without legal process or com-
l)ensation.

This pi'inciple has more recently been
cari-ied so far by the courts that an owner

who deliberately and intentionally places a
building within the lines of a projected street
for the sole purpose of enhancing the dam-
ages to be collected from the city does not
thereby forfeit his right to compensation for
the destruction or injury to his building.
The commissioners may, however, in com-
puting the damages in such a case, consider
whether the building can be moved further
back on the lot.

The Block Rule.

The block rule is applied by both the first
and second judicial department in assessing
the damages incurred for land, but only by
the first judicial department in assessing the
damages incurred for buildings. The second
judicial department prorates the cost of
buildings upon each front foot of land in-
cluded within the assessment area. The ex-
penses connected with the estimate and
assessment are distributed according to the
frontage in both departments. The appli-
cation of the block rule to buildings increases
the portion paid by the city, in that the
awards are more apt to exceed one-half the
value of the property. The first department
embraces the boroughs of Manhattan and the
Bronx ; the second, the boroughs of Brooklyn,
Queens and Richmond.

The cost of the land taken for each block
of street is generally assessed upon the prop-
erty fronting such block. Unless it appears
that one piece of property is benefited more
than another similarly situated, this rule
must be applied. Where the expense of open-
ing a street through a certain block is very
much greater than the expense of opening it
through the rest of its course, the court is
justified in imposing upon the property front-
ing upon such block an assessment for such
sum as it deems the property benefited by
the opening of the street. Nor is the block
rule applicable where an extension of a street

VEHICULAR TRAFFIC STREAMS

MAIN & ELLISON STREETS

SCALE - VEHICLES

PLAN OF
INTERSECTION

FIGURE 66.— One-way streets prevent congestion by obviating traffic snarls and expediting the movement of
vehicles. Making Ellison a one-way street eliminates three possible traffic movements including two left hand
turns.

largely benefits the surrounding neighbor-
hood as well as the property fronting upon it.
When it appears that pai't of the land bene-
fited by a sti’eet is interior land to which
there is no access, while the remaining prop-
erty fronts on a paved street, each parcel of
land is assessed proportionately to the benefit
sustained without regard to the block rule.

Principles Followed in Estimating
Damages for Buildings.

Where buildings are suitable to the land,
direct evidence of their structural value is
admissible. The structural value of the
building, making allowance for depreciation,
and the value of the land may in such cases
be shown separately ; and the sum of these
two, though not a conclusive test, is compe-
tent evidence of the market value. The
proper measure of damages where a portion
of a building is taken is the difference be-
tween the value of the building before the
improvement and the value of the remaining
portion after the improvement.

In 1910, the Board of Estimate and Appor-
tionment adopted a resolution for the destruc-
tion of buildings encroaching upon streets in
all cases where the awards claimed were, in
the judgment of the CoiiDoration Counsel,
greater than the actual expense of moving
such buildings back from the street lines. In
1911 the Board suggested that such buildings
l)e offered for sale at an upset price represent-
ing the difference between the award and the
actual cost of removal.

Principles Followed in Estimating
Damages for Land.

The value of land is usually estimated upon
a scpiare foot basis for the awai'ds. IA)i'
land where a whole parcel is taken, the meas-
ure of damages is its fair market value;

FIGURE 67. — The proposed Fallsway Memorial would
enter the downtown section by way of Market Island.

where a part of a parcel is taken, the measure
of damages is the difference between the
value of the whole before the taking and the
value of the residue after the taking, disre-
garding the benefit resulting from the im-
provement. Whether the whole parcel or
part of the parcel is taken, the compensation
in either case must be the present value of the
quantity acquired, and this value must be
based, not on what the property would bring
at a forced sale, but on its fair worth in the
market.

The fact that an appraisement is for less
than the land cost the claimant is not of itself
a ground for interfering with the award.
The price paid upon a bona-fide sale of the
property about the time of vesting title in the
city furnishes some, although not conclusive,
evidence as to its value. In the absence
however, of evidence that it was sacrificed or
its sale forced or that other circumstances
exist which except the case from the general
rule, such sale price is regarded as control-
ling. Although the value of land taken can-
not be established by showing what is paid
for other parcels similarly situated, the
awards may not be largely in excess of the
amount paid for other property in the vicinity
at bona-fide sales. The value of lands, more-
over, cannot be established by testimony of

FIGURE 68. — The trolleys limit the amount of traffic
that can use Main Street when there are parked cars
at the curb.

offers received for the property. Evidence
of the profits of a ))usiness conducted on the
land taken is incompetent as proof of the
market value of the property. But evidence
as to the intended use of the land is admissi-
ble as a part of the res gestae to show the
circumstances under which it was taken, and
its situation when appi'opriated.

Damages are awarded on the basis of
acreage value, and not on city lot values,
when the land taken extends back hundi’eds
of feet from the highway and no lots are
destroyed.

Plottage is a percentage added to the ag-
gregate value of two or more contiguous lots
when held in one ownership as representing
an increased value pertaining to a group of
lots by reason of the fact that they admit of
more advantageous improvement than a
single lot. As a matter of law, a property
owner is not entitled to plottage. Whether
an awai'd is made for it depends upon the
circumstances in the case subject to the
determination of the commissioners ui>on the
evidence. Plottage, if allowed, can only
attach to vacant lots or to lots valued irre-

spective of the improvements upon them.
Parties to a proceeding, who own two or moi'e
adjoining lots, may i)resent their claims for
the value of their lots considered as one parcel
or as separate parcels. Whei'e plottage is
allowed, the full value of the liuildings on the
separate lots need not be awaixled; where
plottage is not allowed, the full value of each
lot and its buildings must be awarded.

Principles Followed in Estimating
Damages for Excess Lands.

Excess condemnation, though not yet
utilized, has been authorized in New York
since 1915, provided the additional property
taken is not more than sufficient to form suit-
able building lots abutting on the improve-
ment. Title to the excess lands must be ac-
quired in the same proceeding as the required
lands. The compensation awarded by the
commissioners for required and excess lands,
respectively, must be stated in their report.
In arriving at the damages paid for the re-
quired land, the same rule is applied as would
govei'n the determination of damages if no
excess lands were taken. The fact that some
of the land is required and some is excess
does not entitle an owner to greater compen-
sation than if all of his parcel were taken as
required land. Only the amount paid for
the I'equired land can be assessed in the way
of benefits. The excess lands acquii’ed by
the city are subject to assessment for benefit
in the same manner as land not taken.

Principle.s Followed in Estimating
Damages (or Intended Regulation.

Damages for intended regulation of grade,
which injured buildings not required for
street i)urposes, were discontinued in 1915.
For almost a century generous allowance had
been made for such damages, although they

had not been suffered at the time of allow-
ance. Petitions for a change in the legal
grade were frequently submitted and granted
immediately before the physical grading of
the street was contemplated. In such cases
compensation was paid for damages never
inflicted. Where a change of ownership oc-
curred before the intended regulation was
effected, the result was often very embar-

rassing to the purchasers who actually suf-
fered the damages Imt did not receive the
awards, these having been pocketed by the
original owners. The awards for changes in
grade are now made when the street is
graded. The awards are, therefore, paid to
those who own the buildings at the time they
are damaged.

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•■■■■■ aTRCCTS PROPOSCO TOBCCXTCNOCO

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MAJOR STREET PLAN
PATERSON, NEW JERSEY
CITY PLAN COMMISSION

HERBERT 8. SWAN , CONSULTANT

FIGURE 69.— MAJ

U. S. Printing Company
170-172 Main Street
Paterson, N. J.