Stop! Read this #stampoftheday post!
Or maybe just speed through this post to get to whatever is next in your Facebook feed…
I’m sorry, but who can resist such a lede when the #stampoftheday is a 5-cent stamp issued in 1965 with a stop light and the extremely controversial admonition to “Stop traffic accidents”? It’s today’s stamp because today is the 106th anniversary of America’ first electric traffic light, which was installed in Cleveland on August 5, 1914.
This wasn’t the world’s first traffic light. That honor goes to gas-lit traffic lights installed in London in 1868. (Astute readers will notice that this predates automobiles; the system was used to manage horse-drawn carriages that often injured pedestrians.) The London system, which was modelled on signals used in train systems, was manually operated by a police officer. At night, It used gas lanterns with red and green lenses to signal traffic; during the day arms at different angles indicated when traffic should stop or go. While the device successfully controlled, about a month after it was installed a leaking gas line caused it to explode, which badly burnt the police officer operating the system. As a result, the system was quickly abandoned.
By the early 1900s, various American cities installed systems that mirrored London’s daytime system. The Cleveland light, which was installed at the corner of 105th Street and Euclid Avenue, featured four pairs of red and green lights mounted on a corner post that were connected to a control booth outfitted with a manually operated switch that did not allow for conflicting signals. The lights had the words “stop” and “move” on them and a buzzer to warn of impending color changes. This system, a contemporary article proclaimed, “is, perhaps, destined to revolutionize the handling of traffic in congested city streets and should be seriously considered by traffic committees for general adoption.”
Three years later, Salt Lake City installed a system that connected lights at six intersections that were controlled by a manual switch. In 1920 Detroit, using $37 worth of wire and electrical controls assembled by a local police officer, installed the world’s first four-way, three-color traffic light. (Presumably, just after that, some driver became the first to speed up when he saw a yellow light.). In 1920, Los Angeles installed five automated traffic signals on Broadway. All manufactured by the Acme Traffic Signal Co., the signs combined “Stop” and “Go” semaphore arms, small red and green lights, and bells that rang when the flags and lights changed. If this sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because cartoons produced by Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies often featured the Acme lights and their loud bells.
I could – and perhaps should—stop here but instead, I’m going to make three points (and tell one family story) about traffic lights.
The first is the importance of universality: wherever you go in the world, red means stop, green means go, and yellow (which should mean slow down generally means speed up…). And, at least within the US, the placement of the lights is standard: red on top or on the left. The importance of these practices is illustrated by the fact that my father, like many people, was colorblind, which meant he couldn’t tell the difference between red and green (much to the dismay of a Marine Corps recruiter who had to reject him when he went to enlist during World War II; the Army, however, didn’t care). So when my father took his driver’s test, he memorized the location of the red and green lights. And, as best I know, he never mistook a red light for a green one or, if he did, he was never in accident caused by his color-blindness.
My father also couldn’t tell green from brown, which regularly led to the purchase of ugly green suits that he thought were nice brown one when he went shopping during Summit’s annual sales day. Why he never seemed to learn that lesson is a mystery I’ll never be able to answer. I do know that he could see yellow, which explains why that very large many was so often dressed in that unflattering color. But I digress (or, more metaphorically, I seem to have taken a wrong turn…)
The second point is that while traffic light seem to be (and in many ways are) just a prosaic object, they also are tangible signals of two major decisions about how we use publicly owned space. How much publicly owned space do we allocate to cars and how much is given over to walkers, bicyclists, and plazas where people can sit? And are the lights used to foster the movement of traffic (via long cycles and timing devices that allow as much throughput as possible) or are they used to make streets more appealing to – and safer for—pedestrians and bicyclists by slowing cars down? These often are questions about power, class, and race because they involve decisions about whether, and how fast, primarily white, more affluent suburban commuters will go when they drive through less affluent neighborhoods with large numbers of Blacks and Hispanic residents.
The third point is that traffic lights only work if virtually everyone follows the rules. Drivers might do so because people believe that stopping at red lights is a good way not to get injured or killed (and/or not to kill or injure pedestrians and cyclists). Additionally (or alternatively) drivers might stop because they fear the fines they will incur if they don’t follow the rules. But the general point remains: traffic lights work when we agree to follow the rules (or if there is broad agreement on which rules we won’t follow, such as informal rules about yellow lights).
This point, of course, extends well beyond traffic lights to a variety of other domains, including the ways that leaders do – or do not – follow existing rules, practices, and norms in a variety of arenas—from driving to conversations with foreign leaders. But that’s a mental trip for another day.
Stay safe, be well, fight for justice, work for peace and don’t run any red lights.