Other attempts had been made to control traffic via light signals, but they were miserable failures: a gas-powered traffic signal installed in London in the 1860s exploded, and a device created by Lester Wire in Salt Lake City in 1912 was considered temporary. The one installed in Cleveland two years later was the first one that was a permanent fixture from a patented design.
With only a red and green signal, drivers didn't have an interval to slow down, so an early attempt to solve the problem was with a warning whistle or buzzer. It didn’t work and at noisy intersections they caused accidents. In 1920, a Detroit police officer named William Potts added the yellow signal to warn drivers. The yellow signal was patented in 1923 by Garrett Morgan who sold the patent to General Electric.
In Ohio, a solid yellow light is just a warning that the light is about to turn red. In other words, you can enter an intersection while the light is still yellow, but not after it has turned red.
Yellow lights in Washington and Oregon.
How long are yellow lights?
More on Yellow Lights.
The traffic light was modeled after the signals used by the railroad. There's little evidence as to why the colors red and green were chosen, but science has proven the decision to be correct because red light has a longer wavelength than green and it can be seen from farther away. The sooner you see the light, the sooner you hit the brakes.
Go 100 feet down the street from out house, make a right turn and drive two miles and you will come to the end of Clinton Avenue. There’s a traffic light there and if you have to wait on a red light, when it turns green you had better make sure that the traffic on North Ridge Road has come to a stop before turning on to it! Why? Because people run the red light on a regular basis. Why? Who knows, but they do.
The intersection is actually in a small village that has no police department; the Sheriff’s Department is responsible for the area and you never see them because there’s almost never any crime in the village. But, they could make a fortune catching red light runners.
Get caught and it’ll cost you. Stop sign and red light violations are misdemeanors in Ohio. The exact classification and possible penalties depend on how many prior convictions the motorist has had within the past year:
* First offense. Minor misdemeanor, which carries up to $150 in fines.
* Second offense. Fourth-degree misdemeanor, which carries up to $250 in fines and/or a maximum 30 days in jail.
* Third or subsequent offense. Third-degree misdemeanor, which carries up to $500 in fines and/or a maximum 60 days in jail.
A stop sign or red light conviction will add two demerit points to a motorist’s driving record. A driver who accumulates 12 or more points within a two-year period faces license suspension. However, eligible drivers can get a two-point reduction by completing a remedial driving instruction course.
According to the Rowlett (Texas) Police Department:
# You are more likely to be injured due to a red-light running related crash than any other type of crash.
# Running red lights or other traffic controls is the most common cause of all urban crashes.
# Someone runs a red light an average of every 20 minutes at urban intersections.
# In the last decade, red-light running crashes killed nearly 9,000 people.
# An estimated 165,000 motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians are injured annually by red-light runners.
# Half of the people killed by red-light runners are not the signal violators, they are passengers, other motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists.
# There are an average of 7 fatal crashes and over 1,000 injury crashes EVERY DAY at signalized intersections across the United States.
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