How Road Signs Got Their Shapes - Cheddar Explains

[Music] this is what u.s roads looked like in the 1910s the advent of the automobile outpaced the existing rules of the road designed for horse-pulled carriages and the occasional trolley it was a chaotic time to drive never mind be a pedestrian something needed to change today we take road signs for granted we see these shapes and colors and understand their meaning even without words and that was the intention there's a forgotten science to the shapes of our signs [Music] driving in these early years was like being in the wild west no rules and a lot of fatalities in cities roads were an open space that was shared by carriages bicycles and pedestrians roads were raw and chaotic there was essentially no regulations when it came to roads following the introduction of the automobile vehicle travel boomed and road issues that had long been overlooked now needed to be addressed quickly you know it's interesting when you go back to the very earliest days when there were no controls and there was no licensing and people were really learning how to drive and what to do when they were out driving the first two cars in detroit actually collided and both drivers were killed and that was one of the first things to indicate to people that maybe some basic rules of the road including which side to drive on and things like traffic signs were desperately needed by the 1910s city and state governments decided enough was enough and began installing control devices the automotive hub of detroit led the way with the first center line in 1911 the first stop sign in 1915 and the first three color traffic signal in 1920 other cities followed but there was one big problem so every road had a different different set of signs they use different terms they use different shapes they use different colors so if you switch from one row to the other you might not know what the signs meant it could be deadly that detroit stop sign we mentioned didn't look like today's red and white stop sign it was yellow with black typeface and measured 24 by 24 inches slightly smaller than the red and white octagonal sign we have today railroad signs of the day introduced to the cross buck or x-shaped signs there were also diamond-shaped boards that read railroad crossing look out for the car it was recognized by about the mid-1920s that there was a need to make first of all better signs and then it became increasingly clear that unique shapes were necessary in an effort to establish uniformity three representatives from wisconsin indiana and minnesota hit the road in the fall of 1922 to devise a plan the men traveled through several states to get a sense of what sort of signage existed and to see if they could manage to develop a standardized system the following year they presented their research at the 1923 mississippi valley association of state highway department's annual meeting the team's findings determined shape to be the most important aspect of sign identification there was little discussion on color the signs were to be strictly yellow on black other colors like red and blue were harder to illuminate but apart from color their set of recommendations directly resulted in the shapes of signs we see today and it was all based on a simple premise the more sides a sign has the higher level of danger it would represent for their purposes a round sign had an infinite number of sides and was therefore used for what they perceived to be the most dangerous situation a railroad crossing an octagon would be used for a stop sign diamonds would represent precautionary situations like roadwork or bump a square sign would convey caution a rectangle would be used for directional information the recommendation was accepted and these standards were set into motion humans are creatures of repetition and it really helps if there are standardized signs that no matter where you are you are going to know whether it be in by the immediate recognition of the shape or the color what it is likely to say in 1924 the committee on construction and engineering called for widespread implementation of these science standards but also recommended a corresponding color system each color would represent a category red would be stop yellow would be warning blue would be road service and so on however dyes of the time faded quicker than the dies of today with no alternative color fell to the wayside in the early years it was hand painted which meant that they didn't last very long and it was not uncommon to be traveling across the country having the colors fade that was where the idea of standardizing shapes not just the messages or colors came in handy it would be some 30 years until the unified color system could be implemented by 1954 sign makers developed and began using a fade resistant porcelain enamel finally uniform shapes of signs would have their company in color since then not much has changed for road signs some signs have cut down on their wordage new more reflective paints are used and we've even seen new colors but the shapes have remained the same it's a testament to the simple yet effective logic proposed by those three representatives but are these shapes and colors here to stay maybe not autonomous vehicles read a different language thanks for watching also if you've made it this far be sure to like this video and click the notification bell so you'll know when we release new content we'll see you next time

Channel: Cheddar

Views: 107,719

Rating: 4.9289398 out of 5

Keywords: Cheddar, cheddar explains, explainer, cheddar explores, stop sign, road sign, road signs, street signs, signs, sign, highway sign, urban development, city planning, design, railroad, history, yield sign, why are stop signs red, stop signs red, stop, transportation, pedestrian, cars, car safety, automobile, driving, drive, street, road

Id: L3VgxEshLwU

Length: 6min 44sec (404 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 26 2021