How many times have you fumed at an interminably slow traffic light or at people “running the light,” or been “rear-ended” while waiting? It’s hard to imagine driving in the city these days without traffic lights, but 100 years ago there were none.
But first, we can’t talk about traffic lights without a brief detour into the history of driver’s licenses. After all, the need for traffic lights arose from the number of cars on the road.
According to the American Automobile Association, in 1903, “Massachusetts (and Missouri) became the first states to require a driver’s license….when the first licenses were issued, they weren’t used to prove a motorist was a capable driver. By and large, anyone with a pulse and a car could obtain one”
Rhode Island was the first state to require a written test to obtain a license in 1908. Amazingly, it wasn’t until 1959 that all states required an exam to get a driver’s license. (South Dakota was the holdout.)
According to the Federal Highway Administration, in 2019, Massachusetts had 4,950,056 licensed drivers. No wonder we need traffic lights!
In the 1920s, licensed drivers were often referred to as “Autoists” in the press.
Prior to electric traffic lights traffic was directed by a traffic officer at intersections. This inevitably led to complaints about the officer holding up traffic in one direction in favor of waving through traffic in another direction. Discussions about installing traffic signals began in earnest in the mid-1920s when permission was given to “install a signal box for a new automobile traffic signal at the corner of Boylston [now JFK] and Mount Auburn Streets.” (Cambridge Tribune December 6, 1924) Permission was granted, and a few weeks later the Cambridge Tribune updated the situation: “Illuminated arrows direct the driver to the right, and an especial signal of red and yellow lights in combination, stops vehicular traffic while pedestrians cross the street in any direction safely.” (Cambridge Tribune December 27, 1924)
Central Square acquired its first traffic signal in 1924. This led to a kerfuffle about angle vs. parallel parking in town. The point of the traffic signal was to speed traffic but some felt that goal was hampered by “angle parking,” (car front end to curb). Of course, angle parking is much easier than parallel parking, hence the debate. Angle parking “delayed the speed of autos, which is necessary because of the new traffic signal in Central square.”
Eight months later the issue remained unresolved:
Apart from the parking problem, the advent of traffic lights generated a lot of other discussions. Where should traffic lights be placed? Should there be “safety islands’? How should they be timed? Should traffic officers trigger the lights? Should officers use loudspeakers? What colors should be used and in what sequence? Amber (what we now call yellow), green and red? Green and red only? Apparently, it was the amber light that caused the most confusion. In 1929, the Cambridge Sentinel reported on the results of a study of how many colors – – and what they mean – – are used in traffic lights in cities throughout the U. S.
The study noted, “Working on the information that persons who are to some extent color blind constitute 5 percent of the population, the bureau of standards has selected colors which are distinguishable to most if not all persons having defective color vision” (Cambridge Sentinel February 23, 1929)
In 1925 a traffic booth was installed In Central Square.
The new electric traffic light worked automatically, thereby eliminating the need for a traffic officer. The Tribune went on, “It has three controls so that traffic can be handled according to its call. By setting it on the first control, traffic will be allowed to go up and down the avenue for 30 seconds and across the avenue for 30 seconds; second control allows traffic to go up and down the avenue for 40 seconds, across the avenue for 20 seconds; third control allows traffic to go up and down the avenue 25 seconds, across the avenue for 35 seconds.” [Got that??]
“The device has three colored spaces on each side. The top one which is read reads “Stop,” the middle being white reads “Change of Traffic.” There are three seconds between the signals so that each one has a fair chance to get his or her car under control. The bottom space is green, and reads “Go.” On top of the device there is a red light which is lighted at all times so that it can be seen my any one, therefore eliminating trouble by saying that they could not see it.”
Shortly thereafter the Chronicle outlined two suggestions for improvements to the “auto-cop” made by pedestrians and traffic officers alike, “…by which Central square’s new auto-cop might be distinctly improved upon….that the alarm bell, which rings to signal a traffic change, should be considerably louder…a more staccato note…would prove doubly effective… the second suggestion is that, during the interval of “traffic change,” when these words are outlined in white light in the center of the device, all other signals should disappear. An approaching motorist will tend to keep aright on going as long as he sees the word “Go” inviting him to do so.” (Cambridge Chronicle May 9, 1925.)
On June 5th, 1926, the Cambridge Chronicle reported that a “new” General Electric traffic signal had been put in operation the previous Saturday in Central Square. It featured a booth for a traffic officer who operated the signal.
That sounded hopeful. But the following year, after several traffic accidents involving officers, the police chief recommended what he called a “Fifth Avenue” system of lights for Massachusetts Avenue. (This system was named after the street in New York City where it was already in use.) Also known as the “wave” system, it coordinated traffic signals at each intersection so that if traffic moved at a given speed, they would never “hit the light” and be stopped. It’s not clear from the newspapers whether or not this was adopted.
Philadelphia had an interesting method of activating the lights:
“Mrs. I. T. Holton tests a new automatic traffic control installation which is being in tested in Philadelphia’s suburbs. It is designed to allow a motorist to cut into a busy traffic artery from a side street. By sounding her horn Mrs. Holton is changing the lights through a device which gathers the sounds and uses them to motivate an electrical sequence.” (Cambridge Sentinel May 4, 1929.)
It took some time for motorists to get used to traffic lights on traffic islands:
The article continues, “City Electrician O’Hearn, who has charge of installing the traffic signal system of which the traffic lights on the “safety island” are an important part, things that a change in reflectors will make them more conspicuous so that the motorists will pay more attention to them. He blames the motorists for the accidents …He expects that the motorists will soon get used to them…”
Jumping ahead about 7 decades, in 1994 the Cambridge Chronicle launched a new weekly column named “Road Gripe of the Week”
Today Cambridge has 128 standard yellow, green, and red lights; 14 flash beacons operating nonstop, 33 rapid flash beacons activated by pedestrians, and 31 timed school zone beacons operating during school drop-off and pick-up times.
Sources
Cambridge Historical Commission
Cambridge Public Library’s Historic Cambridge Newspaper Collection.
https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/statistics/2019/dl22.cfm