Jul 1, 2020
It’s been just over 100 years since the first traffic light appeared. Early traffic lights weren’t automatic but operated manually by a police officer in a booth next to the road. At first, there were only red and green lights. The yellow light didn’t come into use until the 1920’s when officers noticed that drivers needed an interval of time to be able to slow down in order to clear the intersection.
The first fully electronic traffic light was installed on the corner of Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street in Cleveland, Ohio in 1914. But stoplight technology has evolved over the decades into sporting energy-saving LED’s and being controlled by traffic management computers.
A Korean company is working on a traffic light that displays news headlines to keep drivers from looking at their cell phones at a red light. What’s a word for that fuzzy state of almost falling asleep while waiting at a traffic light? Hypnopompic.