The Colours
of Safety

Traffic lights are severely unappreciated for their humanitarian work. With three colours, traffic lights influence pedestrians, subconsciously manipulating how they move through space. 

Traffic lights have leverage over pedestrians; if pedestrians do no not obey the commands of each colour, their last breath might happen just before the sound of a crash. With only three colours, traffic lights manage the safety of several crosswalks. We don't acknowledge the power that these objects have over all the people crossing the road. 

The first time crossing the street as a child who had just learned how to walk let me into the realm dominated by traffic lights. Naturally sensitive to colour, I spotted the brightly vibrant orbs from metres away. My mother held me on one side of the road, directly in front of the bright red light several metres ahead. It floated far beyond my height, or anyone else's height for that matter, exerting an almost excruciating dominance over the two of us waiting. Despite the noisy, impatient car honks and the lack of appreciation from impatiently closed-minded adults, the light firmly remained red, a testament to its ultimate power. Unexpectedly, the light flashed yellow. Before I could shout excitedly and ask my mom "How does that work?" the light flashed green. "Let's go," my mother said, too tired to deal with my childlike exclamations. After crossing the road, we made a turn to face the next set of traffic lights. "These colourful circles are everywhere!" I thought. Through an accumulation of my fascination, I began collecting data out of personal interest. After the light turned green, I counted ten seconds for the green light to start flashing, seventeen to turn yellow, and three to turn red. Once red, the light facing me began the cycle anew. I always thought it was strange how these traffic lights were so obedient and accurate at any time of any day, and that my life depended on them in many ways. 

I notice the constant trend, where every traffic light consisted of three uniformed lights stacked neatly above each other. My four-year-old self would envision mini human-like robots inside those traffic lights. I imagined them to be so miniscule that there would be three living in a single traffic signal. I speculated that in every light, there were three floors: the bottom for the green, middle for the yellow, and red for the top. They had individual offices with a huge table of buttons, mechanical controls, and anything else that's too complicated for a four year old to understand. I thought that they each had one earbud in during work that they use to communicate with all the other robots in their own traffic lights as well as the neighbouring traffic lights. They either press a big red alert button or talk to each other once it's approaching the 17-second timeline when the lights are supposed to turn yellow. They would tug some pulleys that correspond to the robots' office across the street to ensure that they turn green once the other side becomes red. They work together to maintain order in this society, an order that prevented tears, injuries, and death. I recall wanting to be those robots who had the pride of saying “I prevent thousands of deaths in a single day” when I "grow up."

December 10, 1868: The birthday of the first traffic light to appear in the unordered world. Two mobile signs attached to pivoting arms were manipulated by a lever. It was visible through an illuminated gas lit semaphore. In under two months, the light exploded, killing the police officer that operated the signs (Wagner, n.d.). Forty years after the incident, the first electric traffic signal was installed. Lester Wire, a police officer from Salt Lake City, used a wooden box powered by electricity from overhead trolleys to energise the manual "traffic light." Similar manual systems were replicated, like in 1914, when James Hoge controlled a switch inside a booth that resisted conflicting electric signals. It was not until 1920 that the automatic four-way, three colour traffic light we know in the modern world was invented by police officer William Detroit (Driving.ca, 2014). 

The automatic system was a huge relief for police officers; they no longer had to manage the lights manually. The new system set time intervals regulating when the lights changed to a different colour. The design was also supported by the addition of microphones. The cars could honk at the microphones, which picked up the sound as an indication for the lights to turn yellow. Despite the patience of the drivers and pedestrians, the new system ushered in the perils of road rage. Drivers on all four sides of the intersection felt entitled to pass through, and began honking aggressively, contributing to the noise pollution in their neighbourhoods. Despite the creativity and passion offered by inventor Charles Adler Jr. to install a microphone, the natural human reaction to take advantage of the self-governing aspect resulted in damaging side effects (Driving.ca, 2014). 

By the mid 1990s, traffic lights were given the prime opportunity to evolve with the help of computer technology. Progressing towards the 2000s, computer advancements also meant traffic light advancements. Computerised detection incorporates traffic algorithms that account for factors like volume, congestion, and time intervals at each intersection. Computers also enable the coordination of traffic signals at multiple intersections to create synchronised traffic flow, or "green waves." However, the most notable innovation was the installation of countdown timers; the timer display was mounted on existing signal poles with wiring run from the timer to the signal controller. Pedestrians and drivers use the timer to individually evaluate how much time it will take to cross the road, and whether the remaining seconds on the display are enough to cross safely. Furthering customization, traffic light signals in Singapore have been especially accommodating to individuals with disabilities. The creation of a disability card granted such individuals to extend the available crosswalk time before the light flashes red, not only ensuring that those with disabilities can safely get across, but demonstrating inclusivity for all needs (Hendren, 2020). As simple as the countdown timers may seem from a pedestrian’s point of view, this singular installation prevents 165,000 yearly traffic accidents (Spears, 2020).

Today, traffic lights appear in the standard red, yellow, and green form for moving vehicles, while some are installed with the countdown systems for pedestrians. With a growing number of vehicles on the road, traffic lights have increased in effectiveness, preventing the vast majority of the human population from accidents. 

Eleven years of viewing traffic lights at various crosswalks, the three colour-coded tiers in each traffic light still remains clear in my mind. Although traffic lights may not contain the little diligent robots that four-year-old me thought they did, they have undergone an intense history of ineffectiveness, causing accidents and mistrust by the public, highlighting the importance of the role they play in society. Comparing our straightforwardly modern traffic lights with the historical traffic lights controlled by impatient driver honks, I wave to the traffic light ahead of me as a thank you for ensuring my safety all my life. Like my imaginary robots who work day and night, such inventive mechanics similarly worked day and night to keep the world population alive. People rarely ever stop and think that three colourful orbs can determine whether they live or die. 

Throughout my whole life, my mother tried to instil in me the belief that learning communication skills is the most important thing. I responded, "No, traffic lights are."