City Lights: Regulated Streets and the Evolution of Traffic Lights in the Netherlands, 1920-1940

This article analyses the introduction and diffusion of traffic lights into Dutch cities between 1920 and 1940, looking for patterns in their development. The article explores the question of why traffic lights in the Netherlands initially emerged – between 1926 and 1934 – in a broad range of color combinations, only to be reduced to the three standard colors we know today by the mid-1930s. The author uses the metaphor of quasi-revolutionary development, a theory of technological development that is well known to historians of technology, to analyze these patterns. In explaining this standardization process, the author explores both variation and selection, which began under the national government after legal reasons and pressure from Algemene Nederlandse Wielrijders Bond (ANWB), the Dutch tourist organization, forced it to intervene.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/1754849
• Authors:
  • Buiter, Hans
  • Staal, Peter-Eloy
• Publication Date: 2006-9

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; Maps; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 1-20
• Serial:
  • Journal of Transport History
  • Volume: 27
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: Sage Publications Limited
  • ISSN: 0022-5266
  • EISSN: 1759-3999
  • Serial URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/jth

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Design standards; Federal government; History; Standardization; Streets; Technological innovations; Technology; Theory; Traffic signals
• Geographic Terms: Netherlands
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Highways; History; Operations and Traffic Management; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01038305
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 26 2006 12:45PM