Posted
on December 10, 2013
Of
course you know that, before there were cars, there were roads. I
mean, the Ancient Romans built plenty of roads even though they
didn't have Toyota trucks and school buses and convertible sports
cars!
But
did you know that, before there were cars, there were also traffic
lights?
Today
is the anniversary of the first traffic lights, which were installed
on December 10, 1865, outside the Houses of Parliament in London,
England. The lights were meant to control the flow of horses,
pedestrians, and horse-drawn buggies.
They
worked great! Until they exploded, that is!
 |
| Semaphore arms on a railway signal |
The
design of the traffic lights was similar to railway signs, with three
semaphore arms to communicate by their angle whether to stop or go.
For nighttime use, there were red and green gas lanterns. A policeman
stood next to the signal and hand-cranked the lanterns so that the
appropriate color faced traffic.
Unfortunately,
after a little more than a month, the gas lantern exploded and either
injured or killed the policeman operating it. It was discovered that
there was a leak in the gas line. At any rate, the idea of using
traffic lights was abandoned for decades, until electricity was used
to create better, safer traffic lights in the early 1900s.
Types
of traffic lights and intersections...
With
the age of the automobile, and therefore much greater speeds on city
and rural roads, more and more inventions and reinventions have been
attempted to make us safer.
Roundabouts
are common in some places, such as in England, rather than 4-way
intersections.
Three-colored
traffic lights are most common around the world, with yellow light
warning that the light will soon turn red. Did you know that railway
3-colored lights are deliberately in the opposite order, with green
lights on top and red lights on the bottom? They are different so
that the two lights could not be confused...although I think that, at
nighttime, they still could be!
Some
traffic lights have countdown timers, often in dial form, to show how
much longer the light will stay green or red.
There
are distinct traffic signals for public transport in some cities
around the world. These signals are used in the Netherlands (top row)
and in Belgium, France, and Germany (bottom row). From left to right,
the signals mean go straight, turn left, turn right, go any direction
(basically a green light), caution (basically a yellow light), stop
(basically a red light).
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on this date:
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