Rotary Around Common Will Continue Until June

The City will not be able to bring its traffic pattern around the Cambridge Common back to normal until June at the earliest.

Robert E. Rudolph, director of traffic and parking, sent a report to the City Council yesterday, telling them that the MBTA had not yet agreed to make certain wiring changes in the area. The MBTA must make the changes before the City can end the rotary around the Common. Even after the MBTA agrees to the wiring changes, Rudolph said, it will take some 17 weeks to complete them.

Rudolph began the much-damned new pattern as a temporary measure last summer, to allow construction of the Cambridge St. underpass. The rotary is unpopular with residents of streets bordering on the Common, and the Council has told the traffic director to revert to the former pattern as soon as possible.

Councillor Thomas H. D. Mahoney said last night that "This man [Rudolph] doesn't seem to know what he wants to do." According to Mahoney, Rudolph told MBTA officials that the rotary would be permanent, not temporary. The MBTA then spent $8,000 to change switches for their trackless trolleys to conform with the new pattern. It will now cost them another $10,000 to change the switches back.

"Shabby Performance"

"I think that this whole performance has been about as shabby a one as I have seen in a long time," Mahoney aid.

He added that Rudolph had not yet given "any concrete indication" of compliance with another City Council order telling him to find a compromise traffic pattern for the Harvard-Brattle Square area. According to Mahoney, the traffic director told Harvard Square businessmen that he would keep the new pattern despite the Council's order.