
THE MODERN AGE 1900–1950II
THE IMPACT OF INVENTION 1879–19331
ON THE ROAD
FIRST MODERN TRAFFIC LIGHT
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Lester Wire (1887–1958), Designer
Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
1914
Traffic lights, also known throughout the world
as stoplights, traffic lamps, traffic signals, or
semaphores, are visual signaling devices at
road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and
other road locations to control competing flows
of vehicular and pedestrian traffic. These visual
devices use a universal color code—green for
traffic to proceed in the appropriate direction,
yellow/amber for traffic to caution and prepare
to stop short of the intersection, and red ...