Section 9.4: Roads & Road Control

9.4 Roads & Road Control

• 9.4.1 Roads
  
   
• There were about 300 miles of “surfaced” roads in America in 1909.
  
  
• The first rural concrete road was completed on the outskirts of Detroit in 1909.
  
  
• The first coast-to-coast highway in the USA, the Lincoln Memorial highway, was opened in the early 1920s. It ran from New York to San Francisco. 
  
  
• The M1, Britain’s first motorway, opened in 1958.
  
  
  
• 9.4.2 Speed Limits
  
  
  
• See Part 1. The Early History, Section 11.2 (Britain’s Red Flag Act).
  
  
• In Britain in 1903 the speed limit was set at 20 mph.
  
  
• Up to 1914 in the USA the speed limits were mainly 8 mph in towns and 15 mph in the country.
  
  
• 25 mph limits applied in certain situations in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin.
  
  
  
• 9.4.3 Traffic Lights
  
  
  
• The world’s first traffic lights were installed near the Houses of Parliament in London in 1868.
  
  
• They consisted of a semaphore arm and were fitted with red and green gas lamps for night use.
  
  
• The first electric traffic lights were installed in Cleveland, Ohio, in August 1914. They were invented by Lester Wire in 1912.
  
  
• The lights were red and green. A warning buzzer sounded when the lights were about to change.
  
  
• The first patent for a traffic signal in the USA was issued to a Mr Morgan in 1923 (patent #. 1,475,024).
  
  
• The patent was for a T-shaped pole with arms that was controlled by an electric clock mechanism.
  
  
• The world’s first 4-way three colour traffic lights were installed in 1920 in Detroit, USA. They were invented by William Potts.
  
  
• In England the first (experimental) automatic traffic lights were set up in Wolverhampton in 1927.
  
  
  
• 9.4.4 Left / Right hand Side of the Road
  
  
  
• About 30% of all countries drive on the left, including:
  
  
• The island countries of Cyprus, Ireland, Malta and the UK (the only four EU countries that in 2009 still drive on the left) and Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the US Virgin Islands.
  
  
• Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, South Africa, Suriname and Thailand.
  
  
• Up to the late 18th century, when horses were the main mode of transport, most people travelled on the left side of the road.
  
  
• It is commonly believed that the left side became the preferred side by swordsmen when riding horses.
  
  
• A person wearing a sword on their left side found it much easier to mount a horse from the horse’s left.
  
  
• Mounted from the “pavement” side of the road and on the horse’s left side, the horse would then move forward on what would be the left side of the road.
  
  
• In addition, because most people are right handed, swordsmen preferred to keep to the left so that their right hand bearing the sword was nearer to an opponent. 
  
  
• Note: Today practically all people still mount a horse from its left side.
  
  
• In the latter part of the 18th century large wagons pulled by several horses started to be used in the USA to move farm products.
  
  
• These wagons had no seat for the driver and consequently he sat on the left rear horse so that he could keep his right arm free to lash the team.
  
  
• Because the driver was sitting on the left he wanted everybody to pass on that side so he see how close he was to the oncoming wagon’s wheels. He therefore kept to the right side of the road.
  
  
• The first keep-right law in the United States was passed in 1792.
  
  
• An official keep-right rule was introduced in Paris in 1794 and in Denmark in 1793. Why did France and Denmark decide to drive on the right hand side of the road?
  
  
• During the early part of the 19th century, due mainly to Napoleon's conquests, driving on the right spread to Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Russia and many parts of Spain and Italy.