Traffic lights may be something we take for granted today, but once upon a time our traffic didn’t flow to the timed red, orange, and green lights.
Considering London commuters acquired traffic lights in 1868, it might not be too surprising that such lights were a relatively late inclusion to Australian roads. By the end of the 1920s, motor vehicles were more commonplace and there was more traffic in need of controlling.
On the 14th of October 1933, Australia’s first automatic traffic lights lit up the streets of Sydney. The “electro-matic vehicle-actuated control” lights were installed at the intersection of Market and Kent Streets in the CBD, and it was Sir Michael Bruxner, then Deputy Premiere of NSW and Minister for Transport who had the honour of switching them on at 11am.
The Sydney Morning Herald stated, “Four posts, each carrying three sets of three-coloured lights, have been erected at the street corners, and broken “stop” lines have been painted in yellow on the roadway. Signal changes are effected through special “detectors” fitted in the road surface. These register the passage, speed, and direction of every vehicle passing over them, and the appropriate light signals are shown automatically, being exactly adjusted to the traffic flow at the moment.”
And while these traffic light signals installed at the Sydney CBD intersection helped with the flow, it would be another four years before more of these lights were installed across the city and around the country. So, what was the cost to run such innovative and futuristic road technology for the commuters of Sydney? Around £1 a week for each street intersection.
The newspaper article went on to describe motorists “taking quickly” to the lights, although traffic police were on hand to ensure everything ran smoothly and that there was minimal confusion or accidents. However, sneaking through a red light seemed to be something that motorists took to instantly, with the article noting that “a number of men” snuck through when the traffic police backs were turned. Tsk tsk!
#OnThisDay 1933 Australia’s first traffic lights began operating at Market and Kent Street intersection in Sydney CBD pic.twitter.com/dBBuJa4zbq
— NSW State Archives (@nswarchives) October 12, 2014
Melbourne had trialled a manual version of a traffic light system in 1928, which required police on the footpath below to control the signal changeover.
Traffic light variations from around the world
Although Australia has only had traffic lights for less than 100 years, the history of the light-up signals is long and varied, depending on what iteration of the lights you’re speaking of.
The lights that went up in London in the 1800s for example, were the first gas-lit traffic signals. But by 1912, as automobile traffic increased in the US, American policeman Lester Wire designed the first electric traffic light.
This signal was first installed at the corner of 105th and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio, in August 1914 and by 1917 the first interconnected traffic signal system was installed in Salt Lake City. This system involved six connected intersections, which were controlled simultaneously from a manual switch.
However, it was Garrett Morgan who invented the three-position traffic lights we know today back in 1923. The African American inventor had the idea for a third light; an amber warning for the traffic signal after witnessing an accident, quickly decided a device was needed to keep cars, buggies, and pedestrians from colliding with one another.
Although Morgan received the patent for the invention, he would go on to sell the invention to General Electric for US$40,000.
Nowadays, connected vehicles can communicate with traffic signals and other vehicles.
According to research by Washington State University, this technology can vastly improve speed, timing, and efficiency at intersections by as much as 40 per cent, as more cans have the technology to connect.
As for the future of traffic lights? There’s potential that connected cars and AI-driven traffic control could lead to a new colour in the traffic signal: blue. Researchers think a new “blue phase” signal could help drivers in following the vehicle in front of them. When driving in the “blue phase” connected vehicles would have the ability to work with the signal system and keep traffic flowing, while human drivers could follow them.
Keyword: The history of Australia’s first traffic light