The world's first traffic light was installed in London 150 years ago – but it soon claimed its first casualty

Anniversary: December 9 marks 150 years since the world's first traffic lights were installed in Parliament Square, London
Yui Mok/PA Wire
Jason Collie8 December 2018

They’ve saved millions of motorists’ lives but very first traffic light installed in London 150 years ago tomorrow actually led to a disaster.

The humble but ubiquitous road safety system was first unveiled at the junction of Great George Street and Bridge Street in Westminster on December 9, 1868, after Nottingham engineer John Peake Knight decided to bring the railway signalling system onto roads.

It was a fairly simple set up - the signal used red and green gas-powered lamps under the manual control of a policeman.

However, the trial only lasted a month because a gas main leak resulted in one of the lights exploding and seriously burning the policeman on duty.

There are even some reports the unfortunate bobby may have been killed, and the UK’s roads remained traffic light-free until deep into the next century.

As the 150th anniversary approaches, Edmund King, president of British motoring association AA, said: “It didn’t come back to Britain until about 1925.”

During its absence from the UK, the technology was developed further in the US and then around 1929 the first electric signals started becoming commonplace in London.

Despite the traffic light’s long history, its greatest period of growth did not happen until the 2000s.

According to the AA, between 2000 and 2008 there was a 30 per cent increase in traffic lights across the UK and 25 per cent in London, bringing an extra 6,000 traffic lights.

“In the ‘80s and the ‘90s, the increase in traffic lights was probably then in central urban areas, to help pedestrians, to help cyclists,” Mr King continued.

“Now, it’s more at these big junctions that tend to be at the periphery of urban areas where you might have a big roundabout-type junction but now regulating it with traffic lights, and you are seeing an increase in that.

“So, after 150 years, the Great British traffic light is far from dead, it’s increasing on quite a scale.”

Countdown systems that provide pedestrians with a timer and traffic lights for cyclists are among the more recent trends, but questions have been raised about the future of the traffic light as technology around autonomous vehicles continues to develop.

“That will take a very long time because with driverless cars the lines on the road are absolutely crucial, the cars have to read the lines on the road,” Mr King said.

“Until all cars are driverless, you will still need the wonderful British invention of the traffic light.”

  • Additional reporting by the Press Association

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