The origin and development of traffic lights

Traffic lights are signal lights that command traffic operation, generally composed of red lights, green lights, yellow lights, as silent "traffic police", they play a great role in road traffic management and control. Did you know, however, that the original signal lights were only red and green? Today, Xiaobian will introduce you to the origin and development of traffic lights.

First, the origin of traffic lights

The origins of traffic lights can be traced back to the United Kingdom in the early 19th century. At that time, some European countries, including the United Kingdom, had popularized horse-drawn carriages, but there was no signal indicating equipment to guide pedestrians and horse-drawn carriages, so whether it was on mountain roads or prosperous avenues in the city center, horse-drawn carriage accidents often occurred, which not only caused harm to the safety of pedestrians, but also often caused traffic chaos and congestion.

At that time, in Yorktown, in central England, women's dress was not arbitrary, and the two colors of red and green represented the different identities of women. Among them, the woman in red indicates that she is married, while the woman in green must be unmarried. In 1866, J. Smith, then British railway signal light engineer. Inspired by women's red and green clothing, P. Knight came up with the idea of designing traffic lights with red and green colors, which were quickly put into practice, and traffic lights were gradually produced.