91 years ago: Calgary got its first traffic light – people just stopped and gawked

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Author, photojournalist, and former Calgary Herald journalist David Bly wrote the landmark article below in January 2006, observing Calgary’s first traffic light 91 years ago.

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Vital signs: People stopped only to gawk as Calgary installed its first traffic lights

by David Bly

Traffic lights are an everyday occurrence in Calgary, where more than 840 signals control traffic at city intersections and an average of 30 new lights are installed each year.

But it made front-page news when Calgary’s first traffic lights were installed nearly 75 years ago (at the time this article was written).

Calgary had a population of 80,000 in 1931 and the traffic was becoming upset in the downtown district. Traffic control up to that point was carried out by policemen, either through hand signals or a hand signal with arms that said “Stop” Y “Let’s go.”

On October 29, a group of bedecked dignitaries gathered to flip the switch that activated the city’s new traffic light system, which consisted of two traffic lights on 7th Avenue, one on Center Street and one on 1st Street West.

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General Electric ran an ad in the Herald that day to brag about its “Novalux composite type traffic signal system.A laudatory article near the announcement claimed that Calgary was the first in the world to get the system, ahead of New York, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, which were in the process of installing it.

The article said that the GE system offered “infinite possibilities” in traffic control due to its flexibility. With connecting cables, the signals could be coordinated, the article noted.

To help citizens adjust to this modern complexity, the city published a public notice in the Herald with instructions on how to use the system. Green meant go, green with an amber light was a warning to stop, and red meant stop.

Enterprising companies, probably at the suggestion of an enterprising Herald salesman, exploited the new technology by tying their advertising to the event.

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“When the signal shows red, can you stop? When it shows green, can you leave?” wondered Freeman Company, the Hudson-Essex dealer, as it offered special rates on brake tuning and engine overhauls.

Jokes are made about cities where the main source of entertainment is watching the traffic light change color, but for a time after the lights were installed, crowds of pedestrians would gather to watch the lights and see how motorists adapted. (or not) to the situation. new driving rules.

By 1942, the city’s traffic light system had doubled in size. Bob Price, a recent graduate of Central High School, got a job in the city that summer, working in the city’s electrical department.issue hut.He and another employee had the responsibility of taking care of the public lighting and the four traffic lights in the city.

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By this time, signs had been added at 7th Avenue and 4th Street SW and at 12th Avenue and 4th St. SW

Price recalls that rush hour traffic on 8th Avenue and 1st Street SW was still controlled by a “stop and go,” a manual traffic signal operated by a police officer.

“The stop and go sign has been there for as long as I can remember,said Price, who pursued a career as a chemical engineer and oil patch entrepreneur.

One of Price’s assignments was to replace burned-out traffic light bulbs. At first he didn’t realize that the traffic lights on Center Street and 1st Street SW were connected.

“I was changing a light bulb, fiddling with one light, and the other one went out,” he said.

“I started a minor traffic jam on the street.”

The traffic lights were controlled by a mechanical drum, he said, which could be set to different time intervals, depending on conditions.

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traffic wasn’t huge issue then, he said, when Calgary’s population was 85,000 and 50th Avenue was the city’s southern boundary.

Today, with Calgary’s population approaching one million, managing traffic is a complex task accomplished following engineering principles and using digital technology.

The traffic system consists of more than 840 signals, says Ahmad Radmanesh, a signal system engineer with the city’s highway department.

“Calgary, due to its economic growth, has an average of 30 new lights a year,Radmanesh said. “That’s pretty significant growth: Edmonton installs five or six new lights a year.”

Although the traffic lights are scattered throughout the city, the densest group is still in the center, with more than 350,000 vehicles entering and leaving the core daily.

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The system is monitored 24 hours a day from the city’s traffic management center opened last June in the former Enmax building on Spiller Road SE.

Technicians sit in front of computers that are constantly receiving data from sensors and the traffic signals themselves.

The data can be coordinated with images on the eight large screens fed by cameras mounted at intersections and traffic hotspots throughout the city.

About 20 cameras have been installed, Radmanesh said, but more are on the way.

“Our plan is to install 10 a year for the next four or five years,” he said. “Deerfoot Trail is a priority – we are going to install five cameras there in the next few months.”

Computers at each stoplight site allow devices to adapt to changing conditions.

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Many are set to change intervals at different times of the day. Others detect how many vehicles are coming from each direction and adjust accordingly.

In the city center, the lights are set to favor incoming traffic during the morning rush hour and outgoing traffic in the late afternoon. This includes lane changes at Center Street and 10th Street West.

Where traffic crosses the LRT tracks, the lights change as C-Trains approach. Infrared transmitters on Calgary Transit buses also control lights to some extent at some intersections, Radmanesh said.

Fire trucks can change lights at 100 city intersections, shaving seconds off response time for emergencies.

“Where response time is measured in minutes, seconds count,Radmanesh said.

Despite its growing pains, Calgary has a Okay traffic light system, he said.

“It’s very tough,Radmanesh said. “Its reliability is very high.”

if something goes wronglights are set to flash red again, and motorists take turns until the issue it is fixed.

And, on those rare occasions when a signal failure Taken together, the system returns to the method of traffic control prevalent in Calgary before 1931: a police officer.