Red yellow green. Stop lights. The first one was installed in December 1868 in London, England. It was based on railway signals and had semaphore arms with red and green gas lamps. The gas lantern was manually turned by an operator. It was powered by gas and a leak caused it to explode and injure the police operator a few months after its installation so was discontinued.
It was in the early 20th century that electric traffic lights came into operation. And what we consider ordinary today - the four way traffic light intersection - came about in 1920 when the first four-way, three-colour traffic light was installed in Detroit, Michigan. Canada’s first traffic lights were installed in Hamilton at King and Main Streets. It had ringing bells to go with the yellow light cycle.
Did you know that the meaning of green is caution? I’ve always thought of it as “go”, then yellow as caution and red as stop. And there is a red and amber together - they mean the light is about to turn green - you must not proceed yet. Seems like department of redundancy department.
Traffic lights have made their way to museums for curious reasons. Here’s one: the Canadian Museum for Human Rights received a Dutch pedestrian crossing light nicknamed "Sophie" - a realistic female body image instead of the traditional male figure - and its purpose is to illustrate discussions on women's rights.
I have found but one joke about traffic lights today that seems funny:
What makes us really humans?
Selecting all images with traffic lights
I see a traffic light in the background of this picture. This is Bay and Bloor in Toronto. But really that isn’t the story here, is it?
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