Even wondered when was the first traffic light installed? Google tells the answer through a doodle illustrated to celebrate 101st anniversary of the first electric traffic signal system.
The animated doodle 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.
While it was an American policeman Lester Wire, in Utah, who first developed an electric traffic light in 1912 and used red-green lights, the American Traffic Signal Company installed a traffic signal system on the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio two years later on 5 August 1914.
The doodle has been created by Nate Swinehart who hearkens back to an earlier time with shades of black and white, and uses the background colors to make the red and green signals particularly luminous. It’s not an artistic coincidence that the cars leap forward and screech wildly to a halt, either–the yellow light wouldn’t appear for several years, and overzealous motorists had to stop on a dime.
Little history:
Early twentieth-century intersection was a strange scene. While the world’s largest automobile manufacturer sold over 20,000 cars a month in 1914, horse-drawn wagons and carts still crowded the streets and accidents became increasingly frequent. Intersections in major cities were congested, and traffic was directed by police officers who stood in the middle of chaotic highways waving their arms–an unenviable beat, to say the least, especially during a blustery winter in the Midwest.
Gas-lit stoplights appeared in England before the turn of the century, but these had a tendency to explode, and mechanically operated signs that displayed the words “stop” and “move” still relied on traffic attendants. Enter the inspiration of today’s Doodle, the electric traffic signal, which was first installed at the corner of 105th and Euclid in Cleveland, Ohio on August 5th, 1914.