Traffic continues to be a major problem in many cities. Cities across the United States utilize several techniques for controlling and diverting traffic, including wider lanes, traffic lights, road signs, traffic diverting tactics and speed bumps. Speed limits are in place on all roads under city jurisdiction, according to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and police men and women enforce traffic laws to keep motorists safe.
Even the early Roman Empire had problems with traffic. In ancient Rome, the vehicles were horse- or oxen-drawn and many people traveled on foot, congesting the city streets. Still, it wasn't until the Roman army needed to travel quickly from place-to-place that the Empire began to commission the building of roads, according to David H. French. One of the most famous early road systems was built by the Romans in 312 B.C. It was called the Via Appia and connected Rome with southern Italy. In an effort to ease city congestion, in the first century A.D., Julius Caesar banned all wheeled vehicles from Rome during the day.
In 1868, John Peake Knight of Nottingham, England, invented the first traffic light to prevent trains from hitting horse-drawn carriages, according to the BBC. However, it was gas-powered and it was dropped when one exploded. The idea of traffic lights was picked up again in 1908 in America.
In 1932, Carlton Cole Magee invented the parking meter as an answer to parking congestion in Oklahoma and the first parking meter was installed in Oklahoma City in 1935. Parking congestion results in increased traffic as motorists search for parking places or double-park, and proceeds from meters can be used for road construction and maintenance. The Magee-Hale Park-O-Meter Company eventually became the P.O.M company, that still exists today.
The Italian Touring Club developed one of the first modern road-sign systems in 1895. Nine European governments designed the first standardized road signage during the 1908 International Road Congress in Rome. The system of signs developed in the United States in the 1940s was adopted by several other countries, but it wasn't until the 1960s that the United States incorporated international symbols into its own system, according to Irrational Signs.
According to a 2002 traffic report by the Texas Transportation Institute, traffic cost commuters 3.5 billion hours in America's 85 largest cities. In 1982, commuters wasted only 700 million hours in traffic. John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, stated, "We just aren't keeping pace. Our capacity improvements--new highways or transit--are growing at 10% the rate needed."
