William Phelps Eno

William Phelps Eno (June 3, 1858 – December 3, 1945) was an American businessman responsible for many of the earliest innovations in road safety and traffic control. He is sometimes known as the "father of traffic safety", despite never having learned to drive a car himself.

Among the innovations credited to Eno are traffic regulations, the stop sign, the pedestrian crosswalk, the taxi stand, and pedestrian safety islands. He also helped to popularize the traffic circle and the one-way street, both older inventions. His rotary traffic plan was put into effect at Columbus Circle, New York City, in 1905; the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, in 1907; Piccadilly Circus in 1926; and the Rond Point on the Champs-Élysées in 1927.

Early life

Eno was born in New York City, the youngest child of Amos R. Eno and his wife, Lucy Jane Phelps, daughter of Elisha Phelps. He attended Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven and Williston Academy, and graduated from Yale University in 1882, where he had been a member of Skull and Bones.

History

Traffic regulations

Though automobiles were rare until Eno was an older man, horse-drawn carriages were already causing significant traffic problems in urban areas like Eno's home town of New York City. In 1867, at the age of 9, he and his mother were caught in a traffic jam. He later wrote, "That very first traffic jam (many years before the motor car came into use) will always remain in my memory.