Google’s Doodle of the Day for August 5, 2015.
Good morning! If you search for something on Google today, you’ll seee their Doodle above which is paying tribute to the 101st anniversary of the first electric traffic light in the U.S. It got me thinking about something that has been bothering me for some time. Nobody likes a critique who doesn’t offer a solution, so I thought I would do just that and send a suggestion to our Secretary of Transportation, Anthony Foxx. It might just make the roads a whole lot safer.
Dear Mr. Secretary,
101 years ago today the American Traffic Signal Company installed the U.S.’s first electric traffic signal system on the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. The anniversary of this event inspired me to write to you today.
Photo: LATimes.com
I’m colorblind and struggle deciphering traffic signals when it is dark and I can’t see the order of the lights. There seems to be a simple solution to this: create unique shapes for each color. Red could be a square, yellow a triangle and green a circle.
I know that some cities outside of the U.S. are experimenting with this (Quebec for example) – why don’t we start rolling this out as we replace signal lights? It just might save some lives.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Reed Sandridge