U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for August 5

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20090226/CENSUSLOGO)

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090226/CENSUSLOGO)

THURSDAY, AUGUST 5: FIRST TRAFFIC LIGHT

Profile America -- Thursday, August 5th.  An invention that sometimes moves us to distraction -- but without which we wouldn't be moving at all -- was first installed on this date in 1914.  That's when the traffic light at 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio was put in.  It had red and green lights and a buzzer to give an audible warning that the light was changing.  At the time, the automobile was beginning to catch on across America and numbered about 1.8 million, six times more than just five years earlier.  Now, there are more than 247 million motor vehicles in the U.S., and the resulting congestion means that in big metropolitan areas the average person spends 22 hours a year stuck in traffic delays.  You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau, online at www.census.gov.

Sources:  400 International Calendar of Events, Those Were the Days

www.history.com, This Day in History

Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, p. 716

Statistical Abstract of the United States 2010, t. 1060, 1063

Profile America is produced by the Public Information Office of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on a monthly CD or on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button).  

SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau