Westport CT’s William Phelps Eno Loathed Left Lane Campers

You may not know his name, but you follow his rules every day. William Phelps Eno—often called the Father of Traffic Safety—helped shape the way we navigate cities, from the stop sign and traffic circle to one-way streets and pedestrian crosswalks. And while his impact was global, his home base was Westport, Connecticut.

Born in 1858 in New York City, Eno was struck at age nine by the chaos of an old-fashioned traffic jam—dozens of carriages stuck in gridlock, with no rules and no order. That experience eventually led him to abandon the family real estate business and devote his life to a field that didn’t exist yet: traffic regulation.

Eno authored the world’s first city traffic code in New York in 1903, introduced the idea of standardized road signage, and advocated for professionally trained traffic police. His influence quickly spread to London, Paris, and beyond. While he didn’t invent the stop sign or traffic circle, he popularized and systematized their use, pushing cities toward safer, more efficient street design.

In 1921, Eno moved to Westport and founded the Eno Foundation for Highway Traffic Regulation. Though the organization eventually moved to Washington, D.C., its origins are firmly rooted in Westport.

Eno died in 1945—an international authority on traffic who never learned to drive. But his ideas endure. Every time a driver yields at a rotary, stops at a sign, or follows a one-way street, they’re following the path Eno set in motion.