The history of the emergence of traffic rules. History of traffic lights
There was a time when only riders on horses, chariots and horse-drawn carts rode on the streets and roads. They can be considered the first vehicles. They traveled without observing any rules, and therefore often collided with each other. After all, city streets in those days were usually narrow, and the roads were winding and bumpy. It became clear that it was necessary to streamline traffic on streets and roads, that is, to invent rules that would make traffic on them convenient and safe.
The first traffic rules appeared more than 2000 years ago, during the reign of Julius Caesar.
They helped regulate traffic on city streets. Some of these rules have survived to this day. For example, already in those ancient times, only one-way traffic was allowed on many streets.
In Russia, road traffic was regulated by royal decrees. Thus, in the decree of Empress Anna Ioannovna of 1730 it was said: “Carriers and other people of all ranks should ride with horses in harness, with all fear and caution, at attention. And those who do not comply with these rules will be beaten with a whip and sent to hard labor.” And the decree of Empress Catherine II says: “On the streets, coachmen should never shout, whistle, ring or jingle.”
At the end of the 18th century, the first “self-propelled carriages”—cars—appeared. They drove very slowly and caused criticism and ridicule from many. For example, in England they introduced a rule according to which a person with a red flag or lantern had to walk in front of each car and warn oncoming carriages and riders. And the speed of movement should not exceed 3 kilometers per hour; in addition, drivers were prohibited from giving warning signals. These were the rules: don’t whistle, don’t breathe, and crawl like a turtle.
But, despite everything, there were more and more cars. And in 1893, the first rules for motorists appeared in France. At first, different countries had different rules. But it was very inconvenient.
Therefore, in 1909, at the International Conference in Paris, the Convention on Automobile Traffic was adopted, which established uniform rules for all countries. This Convention introduced the first road signs and established the responsibilities of drivers and pedestrians.
Modern traffic rules are almost 100 years old.
Do you know when the familiar traffic light appeared?
It turns out that traffic control using a mechanical device began 140 years ago, in London. The first traffic light stood in the city center on a pole 6 meters high. It was controlled by a specially assigned person. Using a belt system, he raised and lowered the instrument needle. Then the arrow was replaced by a lantern powered by lamp gas. The lantern had green and red glasses, but yellow ones had not yet been invented.
The first electric traffic light appeared in the USA, in the city of Cleveland, in 1914. It also had only two signals - red and green - and was controlled manually. The yellow signal replaced the police warning whistle. But just 4 years later, three-color electric traffic lights with automatic control appeared in New York.
Interestingly, in the first traffic lights the green signal was at the top, but then they decided that it was better to place the red signal on top. And now in all countries of the world, traffic lights are located according to the same rule: red at the top, yellow in the middle, green at the bottom.
In our country, the first traffic light appeared in 1929 in Moscow. It looked like a round clock with three sectors - red, yellow and green. And the adjuster manually turned the arrow, setting it to the desired color.
Then in Moscow and Leningrad (as St. Petersburg was then called) electric traffic lights with three sections of the modern type appeared. And in 1937 in Leningrad, on Zhelyabova Street (now Bolshaya Konyushennaya Street), near the DLT department store, the first pedestrian traffic light appeared.
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