Which came first in the world, cars or traffic lights?
2 Answers
Traffic lights were invented before cars in the world. Types of traffic signals: Traffic signals are divided into: motor vehicle signals, non-motor vehicle signals, pedestrian crossing signals, directional indicator signals (arrow signals), lane signals, flashing warning signals, and level crossing signals for roads and railways. Traffic lights: Motor vehicle signals consist of a set of three patternless circular units in red, yellow, and green to guide motor vehicle traffic. Non-motor vehicle signals consist of a set of three circular units with bicycle patterns inside in red, yellow, and green to guide non-motor vehicle traffic.
I was curious about this when I was a kid, and later found out through research that cars definitely came first. When Karl Benz built the first gasoline-powered car in 1886, there was no need for traffic lights on the roads. More than two decades later, in 1912, the first electric traffic light appeared in Salt Lake City—by then, the streets were already filled with Ford Model Ts. Simply put, it was the chaos caused by too many cars in cities and people getting tired of being hit by horse carriages that led to the invention of traffic lights. Last time, an old mechanic at the repair shop joked that without cars, there’d be no traffic jams or fines, and even traffic police would have half the work cut out.
