First Electric Traffic Signal | Photo Credit : Google Doodle
Have you noticed something interesting on Google page? Not yet? Type the url www.google.com and press Enter. What did you notice? Yes, you are right, Google today is celebrating the 101 years of history of traffic signal by honoring the installation of first ever traffic lights on its home page. The first ever traffic signal in the world was placed in the late 19th century and was placed just in front of the Parliament House. It is quite an understandable fact that the technology was not as advanced as it is now. The first traffic light was operated manually, but, didn’t last long.
On the Google homepage you can see cars with letters “G-O-O-G-L-E” at traffic signal with black and white variants. Might be you are inquisitive to know when was the first traffic signal installed and where? Traced back down the line, the first traffic signal was developed by Lester Wire in the year 1912 in Salt lake City, Utah. Later on 5th August, 1914, it was installed in Cleveland, Ohio. The automatic traffic signal was upgraded with bells to alert the motorists that the light is about to change. Later on, the whole set up was changed with amber lights which are available today in the form of modern traffic light. However, the countdown system in the traffic light was introduced in the year 1990. This system allows the pedestrians to judge whether to cross the road or not.