Versatile VASCAR

THE HIGHWAY

Speeding motorists will now have to contend with another highway-patrol device, one that has proved considerably more accurate than simple speedometer pacing and more flexible in operation than radar tracking. It is known as VASCAR (Visual Average Speed Computer And Recorder) and consists of a small computer mounted in the front seat of a patrol car. By measuring time and distance and then converting them into an average-speed reading, it can clock automobiles coming, going or even crossing.

VASCAR is not only versatile; it is also easy to operate. When a cruising patrolman spots a car as much as a mile ahead and moving away from him fast, he waits for the suspected speeder to flash past a clearly defined landmark, such as an intersection, streetlamp, tree or signpost. The officer then flicks on the time switch, flicks it off when his quarry passes a second roadmark. Time is thus locked into VASCAR's computer. To measure the distance between the two reference points, the patrolman flips on the distance switch when he reaches the first point, turns it off as he passes the second. Now the patrol car's odometer has fed distance into VASCAR, which at the push of a third button automatically computes the average speed at which the motorist traveled the measured distance.

Test by Trials. By following the same procedure, highway police can get the speed of approaching cars. If the patrolman has measured and locked in the distance between two fixed points in advance, he can park unobtrusively off the road, clock the speed of motorists simply by turning the timer on and off as they go past. Already in use in 14 states and now being evaluated by 33 others, VASCAR, which was invented by Arthur M. Marshall, a Richmond real estate agent and lifelong tinkerer, will soon come out in a more sophisticated form, with a digital computer and readout substituted for the current mechanical computer.

But even with the present model, VASCAR has been used with striking results. In North Carolina, where the state highway patrol began using it last December, the number of speeding arrests increased substantially, and as a consequence auto accident fatalities dropped sharply to 142 from 214 the previous December. The device is so accurate that in New York, out of 1,000 motorists arrested through VASCAR, not one has yet disputed his citation. How accurate? Well, Indiana, which has 21 of the units and has ordered 100 more (at $895 each), tested the computer against the Indianapolis Speedway's ultrasophisticated electronic timers during the trials for the last 500-mile race. Timing the Indy race cars at speeds of up to 150 m.p.h., VASCAR was within decimals of the official track clocks.

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