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Traffic, Traffic Lights, Waiting in Traffic, et. al.

On this day in 1914 the first official Traffic Light went into operation on East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio.  Although there had been previous attempts, like the one that killed a policeman in London in 1869.  This one went well, it had two color lights a Red and a Green and buzzer to let you know when the light was going to change.

In honor of this day, here’s some quotes on traffic.

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“Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by traffic from both sides.” - Margaret Thatcher

“Natives who beat drums to drive off evil spirits are objects of scorn to smart Americans who blow horns to break up traffic jams.” - Mary Ellen Kelly

“The only way to solve the traffic problems of the country is to pass a law that only paid-for cars are allowed to use the highways. That would make traffic so scarce, we could use our boulevards for children's playgrounds.” - Will Rogers, 1879 - 1935

“Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic.” - Dan Rather

“In the city a funeral is just an interruption of traffic; in the country it is a form of popular entertainment.”- George Ade

“There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.” - Roger Staubach

Posted: 08-05-2009 13:36 by jim® | with 8 comment(s)
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Comments

Jason Raines said:

Very good Jim,  

One thing I did not learn in my school history books is that the traffic signal was invented by Garrett Morgan, a black man and son of former slaves.  (I had to learn this from a black operations sergeant in the Army.)

inventors.about.com/.../Garrett_Morgan.htm

Only in America can a man come from that background and become a successful businessman and homeowner!

# August 5, 2009 5:59 PM

TVNews said:

When I was in college, one of our microprocessor projects was to design a traffic light controller based on a Z-80 processor. We had to design it from scratch and then write the code.

We didn't have an assembler on a computer back then. Nope, that would be easy. We hard coded the thing using hand drawn memory maps, a card with the Z-80 instruction set hex codes and lots of graph paper to simulate what was happening in the processor at each step of the process.

Those were the days.

Mr Morgan would be so impressed to see where we've gone with his invention. Who would have ever thought back in the 70s that those teeny-tiny little pinhead small red lights called LEDs would ever be big enough or bright enough to be incorporated into traffic lights.

# August 5, 2009 7:32 PM

jim® said:

Thanks Jason, I did not know that and the link was a good read.

# August 5, 2009 10:02 PM

jim® said:

Z-80, wow you are old Smile

Just kidding, thanks for sharing that was a great story.

# August 5, 2009 10:08 PM

TVNews said:

That is not what a Z-80 looked like when I was in school. And yes I am old.

# August 6, 2009 12:53 PM

Eagle Watch said:

Just so you know you're not the only old one out there, the Z-80 came out (as they all did in those days) as a dual in-line package with "Zylog Z-80" silk screened on the top and a notch in one end for pin orientation.

# August 6, 2009 1:42 PM

jim® said:

How about this one instead...

 

# August 8, 2009 10:26 AM

TVNews said:

That's it. You can't bread board that surface mount garbage.

:P

# August 8, 2009 2:01 PM
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