When you see old, rare movie footage from any time before WWI — you’ll notice that in the shots of busy streets — people are shown in every direction oddly in the first automobile or horse and buggy. Chaos theory seemed to work in the flow of traffic at that time – although there were street patrols who directed by hand in some cities…unless they happened to run over. Trust the people in Detroit, Michigan to come up with a plan to create at least one rule of the road in 1915. At that time there were quite a few horse and buggy cars as a means of transportation in the larger cities. The thought of the old car owners having free reign everywhere around the city streets might sound like a joke now in a time of strict road laws – but there were many accidents during that period in the 1910’s. No one really knows the exact reasons why Detroit decided to create the first stop sign. However, picturing a huge pile of old jalopies and buggies after a collision in the middle of a Detroit street might give us a good idea.
That first stop sign is a far cry from the type we see today. Their morning stop signs were just locally produced by painting the word “Sube” in black on white-painted metal. It was more or less a sign that people should think before they decide to take a stroll down that rough gravel road or see if they can cross a busy city street before it hits them. At the end of WWI, the citizens of Detroit decided to institute a plan to make traffic flow more difficult. He came up with the idea of making an octagonal sign so that it would stand out more. This was the beginning of the psychological formations associated with figurative symbols. And it is interesting how America chose the octagon first before Europe, to use the same shape for their stop signs.
What you might also find strange is that the old stop signs (which were soon whitewashed in every other state starting in 1924) with “Sister” in black letters were yellow in color. Thinking the psychological response of exiting yellow means “Stop” — then equating it to “Caution” is quite a leap. It all has, apparently, a difference of several decades. Most of my Gen-X generation would equate a yellow signal with speeding at an intersection to stop at a red . light
After that yellow color was established as the national order in the traffic stop, – other businesses around the country began to work to write manuals to give signs ideas about the design of traffic signs. As with the formation of wars, one had to step in – and two combined forces like the Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices before writing the DE manuals model that we see today.
According to the history manual – it has been revised about nine times in the last 70 years – with the addition of reflective literature in the late 30’s to produce a WWII themed stop sign that would now be collectible. What prompted the Committee to finally agree when the red stop sign on the background with white letters was not reported in 1954 (what national group officially announces the house and why behind the scenes?) – but it had to be moved at a time when cars were beginning to have the ability to to sit beyond the speed limits red hair color in America most certainly makes a reaction to pay attention or focus on something that poses a danger. Who will say that it was not the fear of the Reds (Communists) in the McCarthy era at the beginning of the 50’s who moved the decision to stop the signs of that color?
While a wild thought — it would have been nice to be a fly on the wall and listen to the conversations with the committee brainstorming to come up with a more effective sign to make people intersections to stop
Stop sign internationally…
Which, surprisingly, is a lot of people, because most of Europe seems to have adopted our octagon shape with a stop sign. Many have tried to do it their own way (Israel has a variation on the octagon shape having a red pattern)–but the European Union has set standards and aims for a universal color and universal shape to avoid confusion.
The only country that has adopted the shape of the octagon is Japan. It’s not surprising that the brand has always had simpler designs for its trade marks. In these, the stop sign is an inverted red triangle (the same shape as our “Yield” and “Take” signs in the middle for “Stop” in white letters.
It will be a big deal if we ever evolve into a different color for a stop sign. After 55 years of using red as this writing – which probably won’t happen… unless black (red letters) becomes a new ominous way to turn people to the road when they often don’t today.
