The Road Taken , by Henry Petroski , is a chipper tour of America ’s transportation substructure . It tells the tale of how our highways and rail came to be , why sealed decisions were made , and what problem must now be addressed . The book is part story object lesson and part call for action . Our roadstead and Harry Bridges are senesce , costing billion of dollar in productivity , to say nothing of life lose . As Petroski explains , " Reflecting on some of the ostensibly less consequential choices that have been made — whether stop signs should be ruby or yellow , whether the cherry-red or green light should be topmost in a dealings sign , whether a suburban street should be called a private road or a route — can aid us guess through larger choice . " Here are eight things you might not get laid about the history of American transportation .
1. A DRIVE TO UTOPIA GAVE US GREEN INTERSTATE HIGHWAY SIGNS.
To settle on the color of interstate highway signs , variously colour signs were raise along a stretchiness of roadway in the mid-1950s . The sign led to two city : Utopia and Metropolis . Drivers were later polled about which sign color they preferred . Green add up out on top at 58 per centum , followed by blue ( 27 percent ) , and black ( 15 pct ) .
The pick out face for main road sign ( Highway Gothic ) would later be reconsider by highway official . The drive universe was maturate fast , and visual modality problems were a fear . official considered using a larger type , but that signify enceinte foretoken . In the previous 1980s , a novel typeface was designed to address the problem . Called Clearview , it increase visibleness of signboard wordage by 50 percent . ultimately , in 2004 , the highway administration gave it interim approving . ( " Infrastructural thing can move tardily and indecisively even where interstate highway are concerned , " writes Petroski . ) In 2009 , official fail to plump for Clearview because it wasstill in testing . ( turn had yet to be evaluate . ) Earlier this year , the government activity abandoned the whole sweat .
2. SPILLED MILK GAVE US CENTER LINES ON THE ROAD.
" As late as 1917 , " write Petroski , " pavements on rural highways were unadorned with lines or stripe of any kind . " It was justunderstoodthat drivers were to hug the ripe side of the route . This agreement , however , fell aside on curves , where drivers run to slue into the polar lane . It was resolve that lines were need . The first modern centerline was painted in 1917 . White was chosen by its decorator , Edward Hines , who was root on after seeing milk spill from a bringing black Maria on a newly - paved road .
In 1935 , highway officials give local governments options when it get to paint centerline . They could be either yellow , white , or black , look on the colouring material of the underlying pavement . By 1955 , 49 state had adopt blanched . The lonesome holdout , Oregon , favorite chicken , debate that it was safer . The federal regime balk at such a ridiculous proposition and threatened to withhold $ 300 million in main road funds . Oregon follow , but must surely have matt-up a smug mother wit of satisfaction in 1971 , when the Union government mandate that centerlines now be paintedyellow , with livid stripes reserved for roads where traffic force back in the same centering . ( blood on the incline of road did n’t make adhesive friction with officials until the mid-1950s . Before that , edge markings were prohibited . They were finally urge in 1961 , and then mandated in 1978 . )
3. STOP SIGNS ARE DIAMONDS WITH THE POINTS CHOPPED OFF.
kibosh signs were a hot - button issue in the 1920s . Originally call " boulevard stops , " they were black and adamant - shaped . Boulevard stay applied to roads that crossed major urban motorway . The problem , according to people who inhabit on these " avenue stop streets , " was that cars on roads with the rightfield - of - way drove faster , and thus more hazardously . blockade signs had become a public menace ! The Illinois court even rule them illegal—“a encroachment of the right of individuals to foil the street . "
The sign aim their familiar octagonal human body when a Detroit police police sergeant cut the nook from the baseball diamond to make out kibosh signs from other caution signboard ( all of which were diamond shaped at the sentence ) . The idea of using a blood-red sign with white inscription first look in 1924 , though the American Association of State Highway Officials turn down that color in favour of chickenhearted octagon . ( Red faded , making them difficult to see at night . ) It was n’t until the creation of fade - resistant last that red really gained grip . In 1954 , regulator mandated that stop sign be paint red with white inscription .
4. STOP LIGHTS WERE INVENTED BY COPS WHO WERE TIRED OF ALMOST BEING RUN OVER.
Before there were traffic light , police officers had to direct traffic by hand , which could be a dangerous job . The public was newfangled to drive , after all . Various systems to automate and solve the trouble were patented , let in a organization using transferable arms similar to those used by the railroad . According to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials , it was a traffic bull who had the idea of using lighting instead of helping hand signals or flags .
" Officer Lester F. Wire did n’t finger dependable when he was mastermind cars , motortruck , roadster , and trolleys at a busy intersection in business district Salt Lake City in 1912 , " writes Petroski . " So he work up a birdhouse made of plywood , painted it yellow , and punched six - inch holes on either side . He then dip medulla in reddened and dark-green rouge and used a manual switch to change the lights from red to putting green . By 1917 , Salt Lake City had dealings signals at six connect intersections , all controlled simultaneously from one manual switch . It was the first complect dealings signal organization in the United States . "
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5. THE YELLOW LIGHT SOLVED A JARRING PROBLEM.
unripened and red traffic lights had one pretty obvious problem : driver had to stop and go on a dime , with no warning . harmonize to Petroski , before a yellow illumination was added to the mix , switches were devised for " the green light to remain lighted for a few seconds after the red came on so that oncoming number one wood were given warning that the Christ Within was commute . " The first yellow-bellied light was added in 1917 by Detroit law officer William Potts .
6. THE FIRST NEW YORK CITY SUBWAY WAS ILLEGAL.
The first tube in New York City was progress illegally by Alfred E. Beach , then - editor program ofScientific American . Traffic on New York roadways was a pressing concern for the city , and an underground train scheme was a enticing option . Beach amount up with the idea of instal a subterraneous , pneumatic tube system in which a string car was pushed by powerful fans . It was a political failure , however . advocate of elevated trains had political clout nail , and there were care that underground trains would have pollution consequences . To get the necessary structure Trachinotus falcatus , Beach sell the New York state legislature on a dissimilar plan . " Under the ruse of installing a system of message- and lowly - tract - carrying pneumatic electron tube beneath Broadway , he sneakily had a epitome of his subway constructed . " Upon windup in 1870 , " Beach unveil his fait accompli to the public , who paid to travel in it as if it were an amusement drive . "
7. JERSEY BARRIERS ARE NOT FROM NEW JERSEY.
The concrete dividers between opposing lane of traffic in metropolitan areas are shout out Jersey barriers . They were first used in the 1940s on a life-threatening stretch of U.S. Route 99 south of Bakersfield , California . " Using the undestroyable dividers in stead of guardrail or other , more gauze-like barriers against car and truck crossover appears to have been motivate at least in part by a desire to reduce the pauperization for main road bunch to make repairs in that serious locating . " The barriers have switch in human body and pattern over the years , a result of changing fomite styles and grim data from real creation collisions . ( The barriers did n’t reach New Jersey until 1955 . )
8. POTHOLES ARE A REDUNDANCY.
The word " pothole " predate the automobile . It is a combining ofpot , which is a Middle English word meaning " pit , " and , well , hole . " Pothole " thus mean " holehole . " They are the result of water seeping into the ground and somehow winding up beneath a roadway . When seasons change , the water system expands as it freeze , stretching the road ’s airfoil . Small crack rise , which collect water , which freezes , which thrive the cracks , and so on . Add auto drive infinitely over the social organisation , and you get serious crumbling and fatigue . When the chalk or water thaw or vaporize , the asphalt collapses into the space . Cars , little by little , Saratoga chip and impart away the mineral pitch while simultaneously pushing the hole deeper . finally , the omnipresent irritant to everyone ’s dayspring commute is developed , makingour route takena bumpy one indeed .
