It's amazing how few years it takes for tech to become so commonplace, no one remembers how recently it came along, like the traffic light, or, the internet

Not so long ago, they had to have mass communication awareness campaigns for traffic lights (1965) and zip codes, for example

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10229981054283086&set=pcb.28169853525950006

sign in middle of road during the Hupmobile United American Tour, also known as the Hupmobile Capital-to-Capital tour.

https://digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org/islandora/object/islandora%3A194746

a very early " school zone" sign, back when most travelers were still using horses

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/340/

1953 on the southeast corner of Hollywood and Cahuenga Blvds, and Figueroa St. and Sunset Blvd

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1425688885785632&set=a.181986760155857

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1133363408351516&set=a.181986760155857

when they wanted a car to WHOA, they really meant it

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/682

I almost made it the whole day without posting cartoon art, until I saw this - and it ties in with last weeks "dummy light" post, and the evolution from police operated traffic signals in the middle of intersections, to stop lights

I think it was worth it, Donald on a scooter, Pluto pulling a dog cart! 

it turns out they didn't avoid repeating the titles of cartoons, they reused Officer Duck more than once

Skip the first 30 seconds

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x620x4k

https://disneyanaplus.com/vare/officer-duck-complete-set-of-original-published-disney-art-from-1940/

have you heard of "dummy lights" ? Pedestal-mounted traffic signals in the center of intersections that replaced the cops that had been directing traffic when there were very few vehicles and a lot more horse wagons. There are less than a handful existing in the USA

On November 11th, 2021, a Western Express tractor-trailer crashed into the historic Canajoharie Dummy Light, because instead of driving straight through the intersection and making a turn at the next block....  the trucker made the idiot error of smashing into the traffic light 

before the dummy light

This was a watering trough for horses, with a plaque installed by the daughters of the revolution, commemorating a revolutionary war fort

the dummy light in Canajoharie, New York above, is just South of the Erie Canal, it is the headquarters of the Beech Nut Baby Food Company and stone for the Brooklyn Bridge was quarried there.

example of when police stood in the intersection and operated the signal switches 

there was one in Scituate Mass until around 1996, that's when this photo was taken of the intersection of Henry Turner Bailey Rd and Country Way

There are still at least three dummy lights surviving in New York State. Besides Croton-on-Hudson there are operating dummy lights in Beacon and upstate in Canajoharie.

and besides the 3 in New York state, there is one in Smackover Arkansas 

The first traffic signal was installed in 1868 in London, in the middle of an intersection to direct horse carriages  https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2024/12/the-traffic-signal-originated-in-london.html

I had forgotten this one that I posted 2 years ago  https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2023/03/wow-thats-sturdy-traffic-light-of.html

on the far left, that's a small pole, but new to me, I don't remember seeing that before. This is in Minneapolis, between Marquette and Nicollet on 9th

and stop signs in Portland were once speedbumps 

In Philly in 1922 https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2018/02/1922-philly.html 

There are few interesting and unusual traffic lights in the USA, and this is the 1st time I've heard of these Dummy Lights by that name.  But the one traffic light that sticks out in my memory, is the one that is green on top  https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2019/10/the-legend-of-traffic-light-at.html

https://www.eldiario24.com/en/americas-mysterious-traffic-signal/24938/

https://www.facebook.com/SaveTheDummyLight/

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=9837481819621447&set=gm.10002553983136035&idorvanity=751191438272382

https://www.facebook.com/groups/751191438272382

https://www.crotonfriendsofhistory.org/dummy-forever

https://forums.aaca.org/topic/341211-period-images-to-relieve-some-of-the-stress/page/613/

there is a traffic light in Japan, that only turns green one day a year

The island of Himakajima, a few dozen kilometers south of Nagoya in between Ise Bay and Mikawa Bay, Japan, is home to around 2,000 residents.

Himakajima doesn’t really need any stoplights because the tiny island sees very little foot or car traffic. However, the children who grow up on the island may not live there forever and  many will grow up to attend schools or find jobs on the mainland, so it’s important that they know how to cross a street with a traffic light.

In 1994, at the request of the local traffic safety association, stoplights were installed on the east side of the island so the town’s children could practice crossing the street like they would in a big city.

The annual children’s crossing has become so popular that people planning to visit the island often hunt online to catch wind of when the stoplight will be fully operational.

https://www.upworthy.com/worlds-strangest-traffic-light-japan

government inefficiency in action, it took 10 months and 2.4 million dollars to activate a single stop light in Fresno

 According to a new report from Streets Are For Everyone, from 2021 to 2023, intersection violations in Fresno County led to 55 deaths and 153 serious injuries. that’s 18 people killed and 51 badly hurt each year, giving the county the dubious distinction of leading California’s larger counties in red-light and intersection crashes 

So in 2018 plans began for a new traffic light at the intersection of Fowler and Olive in Fresno County.

The county was behind the idea, but the light sat on the edge of city limits, and was built to meet city regulations

Add to the complication of those two government entities trying to work out the details to the work of purchasing the land, securing rights of way, buying equipment, etc

 

Once the signal was installed, it still took nearly ten months before the city could finally switch on the light.

A traffic light installation just a mile and a half away took only three months from ground-marking to activation, because that project fell entirely within city limits and was managed by a private homebuilder.

https://www.carscoops.com/2025/10/10-months-and-2-4-million-later-fresno-turns-on-traffic-signal/

A 1935 London police officer directing traffic in heavy fog using a open flame vented from a folding pipe normally stowed in a metal box embedded in the street, but connected to the gas main.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=797458466494958&set=a.106326312274847

spotted on the 15 on the way to work 10 hours ago... I love this home built box topper

and the skid plate and pusher bar covers are cool too

 

what French street signs meant

 https://www.flickr.com/photos/taffeta/albums/72157635401185030/with/9680215069

and see https://www.flickr.com/photos/taffeta/albums/72157629876714215/with/7103607709

1955 https://www.flickr.com/photos/taffeta/albums/72157623556488584/with/4406943647

https://www.flickr.com/photos/taffeta/5935333528/in/album-72157621063523905/

the traffic signal originated in London on Dec 9th, in 1868, when one was installed to direct horse-carriages

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/chaotic-traffic-from-horse-drawn-carriages-inspired-the-worlds-first-traffic-lights-180985558

This traffic control cabin from the1970s, Chernivtsi Ukraine

 https://www.reddit.com/r/RetroFuturism/comments/12hei1o/this_traffic_control_cabin_seems_oddly_futuristic/

Wow, that's a sturdy traffic light, of a design I haven't seen a photo of before this

This gasoline-powered double decker bus was the only, short lived, double decker in the Boston Elevated Railway fleet. 

Roster number 100, it was built by the Six Wheel Company with a 66 passenger Hoover body, purchased in 1926. 

It was operated for a short time on a temporary certificate between the Fenway and Bowdoin Square before being prohibited by the Public Utilities Commission of Massachusetts on safety grounds (fire risk and danger of overturning). It was subsequently cut down to a 31 passenger single decker. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/boston_public_library/6008642697/in/album-72157627356059350/

Garrett Morgan, invented the first widely used and easy to manufacture gas mask, and an early caution alarm between GO and STOP on a traffic signal! That's a lot of awesome, for one inventor!

One of his most famous inventions is a breathing device to protect firefighters. Called the Morgan Safety Hood, it was a precursor to the modern gas mask, which he improved upon over the next 2 years and in 1914 receive a patent. 

Garrett Morgan's safety hood was used in World War I and to save workers in a collapsed tunnel under Lake Erie in 1916. Wearing the Morgan Safety Hood, he, his brother Frank and two other volunteers entered the tunnel, returning with the individuals… both alive and dead. Cleveland's newspapers and city officials wrote him out of the story, lauding Tom Clancy, one of the volunteers, with the rescue effort. It would take years for the city to recognize his contributions.

In 1914, he would receive the first grand prize at the Second International Exposition of Safety and Sanitation for his invention of the Morgan Safety Hood.

In 1917, the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission reviewed this heroic act as a nomination for their award.

By the 1920s, automobiles were competing with horse-drawn carriages in the street of America. Morgan would witness an accident at an intersection involving a horse carriage and an automobile. The people in the carriage were flung to the street, the driver of the car was knocked unconscious, and the horse had to be shot.

This may have prompted the idea for his next, and equally famous invention, the three-way traffic signal in 1922. It became the first one patented in the United States on November 20, 1923. Morgan would start the GA Morgan Safety System Company and later sell the rights to General Electric Company for $40,000. 

The signal consisted of a tall pole with a bell on top, movable arms with the words “stop” and “go,” two of which were raised and lowered by a hand crank. While the crank was turning, the bell would alert pedestrians and drivers that a change was going to take place

https://www.blackhistory.com/2020/01/garrett-morgan-black-inventor-first-gas-mask-three-position-traffic-light.html
https://mancunion.com/2020/10/30/an-ode-to-garrett-morgan-the-inventor-of-the-smoke-hood/

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/1922-g-a-morgan-first-traffic-signal-antique-paper-patent-print-greg-edwards.html

https://mancunion.com/2020/10/30/an-ode-to-garrett-morgan-the-inventor-of-the-smoke-hood/