Yes, those are starting and stopping cars at a traffic light that you can see depicted in today’s Google Doodle on the front page of Google’s website. But it’s a scene from a very distant and different world, as the animation is marking the 101st anniversary of the installation of the first electric traffic signal.
As Google explains today, street intersections in 1914 were caught up in the transition between the widespread use of horse-drawn wagons and carts in the previous century and that of automobiles later in the twentieth century. Accidents became more common, and the thankless task of manually directing traffic fell to police officers who had to stand in streets and accordingly wave their arms.
There had already been various attempts to develop more autonomous methods of traffic control, the most enduringly successful of which culminated in the installation of the world’s first electric traffic signal in Cleveland, Ohio on August 5, 1914. This signal did not, however, include a yellow light; that would not become standard in traffic lighting until years later, which explains why such a light has been omitted in today’s Google Doodle put together by Nate Swinehart.
