 |
| Ilustration - The Amrican City, September, Page 182. Photo: Cleveland Police Museum |
Traffic lights are an inseparable and important part of city life, especially in activities on the highway. You can imagine a city with a fairly dense number of vehicles without a regulatory system called Traffic Lights, which would definitely experience severe traffic jams. Traffic lights are also commonly called APILL (Traffic Signaling Devices), which function to regulate and control traffic flow. This device, which is also called a Traffic Light, is installed at road intersections and pedestrian crossings (zebra crossings).
The importance of this tool is that it is considered a public security and safety light for road users. As is known, those who obey traffic rules tend to avoid accidents, whereas those who violate often have accidents. In many cases, individuals who try to pass through stop (red) traffic lights experience accidents due to collisions. Some of them only suffered injuries, but quite a few also died.
So where does the Traffic Light actually start and originate from? In history, it is recorded that this tool (manual form) was first recognized in London, England in the 19th century.
As is known, London was once a record breaker as the city with the worst traffic management, because of extraordinary congestion. The capital of England is listed as the 25th most congested city in the world. It was recorded that at that time there were approximately 13 thousand vehicles operating on this city's roads.
The traffic jams of 19th century London were reviewed in a book entitled Victorian London: The Life of a City 1840-1870 (2006) written by British Historian, Liza Picard. This 496 book published by Phoenix House is a representation of the author's interest in the reality of everyday life and the conditions in which most people live. According to this alumnus of the London School of Economics and Political Science and born in Great Britain (1927), this phenomenon is often overlooked in history books.
According to the BBC, as quoted from Hai-online.com, it was stated that horse-drawn carriages and pedestrians had crowded the streets of the City of London. This prompted the British railway manager, John Peake Knight, to suggest adapting the synchronization method usually used by trains to control traffic on the road.
It was also stated that through Knight's adaptation method, traffic signals will display "Stop" and "Go" signs during the day, and at night, red and green lights will be used. Gas lamps would illuminate the sign. A police officer was stationed not far from the traffic signal to operate it.
Still according to Hai-online.com, the world's first traffic signal was installed on December 9, 1868, at the intersection of Bridge Street and Great George Street in the Westminster area, London, near the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Bridge. However, unfortunately, only a month later, a policeman who was in charge of controlling the signal was seriously injured due to a lamp exploding due to a gas leak. Since then, this product was considered dangerous and was finally removed.
In its development, electric traffic lights were finally discovered by Lester Farnsworth Wire in Salt Lake City, North America, who introduced traffic lights which began to be used in 1912. Initially the traffic lights used only had two colors, namely green (move = move) and red (stop = stop).
During its development, this tool continued to be modified until it found its modern form. In a book entitled How the Automobile Change History: Essential Library of Invention (2015) by Diane Bailey, it is stated that the first modern lights were installed at the intersection between Eucid Avenue and East 105th Street, Cleveland, Ohio, United States.
*Quoted and adapted from various reading sources
