Life
on a fast lane is not all that easy – everyday thousands of vehicle pass
through the OMR [aka IT corridor] Chennai – signals at
Tidel Park, SRP Tools, Thuraipakkam choke – people curse and swear and many of
them try to beat and outsmart others – at signals, it is a commonsight –
vehicles jumping signals and causing commotion. To many, be it on OMR or any
other road, the sight of a Police man is
a deterrent – not the traffic signals.
They work elsewhere
across Globe, in fact for more than a century now – for today [5th
Aug] marks the anniversary of the device that was installed in
Cleveland, Ohio, at the corner of 105th
and Euclid, way back in 1914.The lights offered respite to policemen who had
previously been forced to direct cars and horse-drawn wagons in the middle of
crowded highways, even in the throes of a midwestern winter. The animated Google doodle of the day, shows cars with the letters spelling
"G-O-O-G-L-E" halting at a red traffic light and then rushing past it
as it turns green.
Traffic lights,
also known as traffic signals, traffic lamps, traffic semaphore, signal lights,
stop lights – all known technically as traffic control signals, are signalling devices positioned at road
intersections, pedestrian crossings and other locations to control conflicting
flows of traffic. The first manually operated gas-lit traffic light was
installed in 1868 in London, though it was short-lived due to explosion. The
first safe, automatic electric traffic lights were installed in the United
States starting in the late 1890s.
Traffic lights alternate the right of way accorded to road users by
displaying lights of a standard color (red, yellow, and green) following a
universal color code. In the typical sequence of color phases: Green allows traffic to proceed; Yellow
[amber] warns that signals is about to change ! [not to move faster before it
becomes red or having turned red just, as we see in most places !!]; the Red signal prohibits traffic from
proceeding.
The first
non-electric, gaslit traffic light installed outside the Parliament in London –
did not last long, as it exploded in a couple of months due to a leak in a gas
line. With doubts about its safety, the
concept was abandoned until electric signals became available.The first
electric traffic light was developed in 1912 by Lester Wire, a policeman in
Salt Lake City, Utah, who also used red-green lights.On 5 August 1914, the
American Traffic Signal Company installed a traffic signal system on the corner
of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio.It had two colors,
red and green, and a buzzer, based on the design of James Hoge, to provide a
warning for color changes. The design by James Hoge allowed police and fire
stations to control the signals in case of emergency.
Los Angeles
installed its first automated traffic signals in October 1920 at five locations
on Broadway. The first interconnected traffic signal system was installed in
Salt Lake City in 1917, with six connected intersections controlled
simultaneously from a manual switch. Countdown
timers on traffic lights were introduced in the 1990s. Timers are useful for
pedestrians, to plan whether there is enough time to cross the intersection
before the end of the walk phase, and for drivers, to know the amount of time
before the light turns green.
Now the humble
traffic light has been honoured with a Google Doodle to celebrate its 100th
Anniversary on Wednesday.
Perhaps the most
impressive traffic light specimen ever to be unleashed on the world's streets
was the Traffic Light Tree, created by French sculptor Pierre Vivant in
1998.The imposing eight-metre tall tree consists of 75 sets of lights and has
become a favourite spot for tourists in London.While most countries have become
dependent on traffic lights over the decades, some places are happy to do
without them. In Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, a huge intersection runs
smoothly without a single traffic light !
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
5th Aug
2015.
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