Fact of the Day



Traffic Lights

The present system of color coding was developed by the railroads during World War I, though the use of these particular colors for the same meanings goes back further. Red, the color of blood, has been a danger signal since early times; even Roman legions used a red banner for Mars, the god of war. The other colors have changed over time. Originally red meant "stop", green "caution" and white "go". The white signal was easily confused with normal light, so it as changed. The railroads decided to drop white and make green "go" and yellow "caution", the latter presumably because it was readily visible and offered the most striking contrast to the other two colors. The first traffic signals (Cleveland 1914) used just red and green. In the early 1920s, in Detroit, they started using the three colors we use today.

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