International Traffic Light Day (05/08)

International Traffic Light Day is celebrated on August 5 in honor of an event that occurred in 1914. On this day, the first predecessor of modern devices appeared in the American city of Cleveland. It had red and green lights, and when switching lights, it made a sound signal.

However, the very first traffic light was invented by the Briton Jay Knight back in the 19th century. This apparatus was installed outside the Houses of Parliament in London in 1868. Three years later, his flashlight exploded and injured a police officer. After this, the traffic light was forgotten for almost 50 years — until 1910, when the first automatic traffic light device with two-color lights was developed and patented.

Three-color traffic lights, similar to modern ones, were first seen by residents of Detroit and New York in 1920. Over time, the devices became popular in different cities in America and Europe.

In Russia, a traffic light appeared in January 1930 — on the corner of Nevsky and Liteiny Avenues in Leningrad (today — St. Petersburg). In December of the same year, an automatic traffic controller was installed on the corner of Petrovka and Kuznetsky Most in Moscow. The third city in Russia where the traffic light began to operate was Rostov-on-Don.

In 2010, a monument to this device was opened in Perm. This event was timed to coincide with International Traffic Light Day. There are also monuments to traffic lights in Moscow, Novosibirsk, Penza, Kirov...

Traffic light (from Russian light and Greek φορός — «-carrying») — is an optical signaling device designed to regulate the movement of motor vehicles, as well as people at pedestrian crossings and other road users. Traffic lights are also used on railways, shipping and navigation.

By the way, the word «traffic light» itself officially entered the Russian language in 1932 — then it was included in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, and in 1940 — in the D.N. Dictionary. Ushakov, although they started using it, of course, earlier.

In Russia, today's holiday is actively used by traffic police officers, employees of educational institutions and activists of public organizations as another reason to remind all road users, and first of all — children, of the need to strictly comply with the requirements of traffic rules, because the cost of the most minor mistake on the roadway can become human life.



Infographics – poster «5 August — Traffic light day» Story «Traffic light woman»

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