goldfarb@ucf-cs.UUCP (06/23/83)
I noticed what I thought was an anachronism in a movie supposedly depicting the 1930's recently, prompting a discussion that I would like to continue here. Specifically, there was a RED stop sign on a street in the movie. I can recall that stop signs were YELLOW up until the late 50's. They were then changed to red. I've had some folks tell me I'm crazy, so perhaps the yellow stop sign was just a local phenomenon in Pittsburgh, where I grew up. Does anyone else besides me remember yellow stop signs? -- Ben Goldfarb uucp: ...!duke!ucf-cs!goldfarb ARPA: goldfarb.ucf-cs@Rand-Relay
larry@ihuxf.UUCP (06/23/83)
I also remember yellow stop signs with a switch to read sometime in the mid- to late fifties. This was in a Chicago suburb where I grew up. -- Larry Marek ihnp4!ihuxf!larry
hoffman@pitt.UUCP (06/23/83)
I, too, remember yellow stop signs. Ben Goldfarb isn't crazy. ---Bob Hoffman, U. of Pitt CS (another Pittsburgh native!)
tag@tty3b.UUCP (06/23/83)
Yes, I recall yellow stop signs in my home town of Park Ridge, north-
west of Chicago. The word STOP was spelled out with little yellow
reflector-buttons. Stop signs were smaller in those days (~1960) too;
does anyone know what size they were? That's a funny question, I know,
but I really would like to know. Reply by mail, of course.
- Tom Gloger ( ihnp4!otuxa!tty3b!tag )prgclb@ihuxm.UUCP (06/23/83)
Ben Goldfarb's note on seeing a red stop sign (instead of a yellow one) in a movie set in the 1930s reminds me of other notable goofs in the movies. I have seen, more than once, a movie character drop coins into the newer single-slot coin telephones while the sound track plays the BONG sound that you heard when you dropped quarters into the old 3-hole coin phones. Other goofs -- particularly related to railroads -- a made for TV movie set in the World War II era showed Southern Railway's 4501 steam locomotive pulling a string of boxcars -- but the boxcars were all 1970s vintage: steel, no running boards on top, and handbrake wheel down low. In the Silver Streak, the engineer is driving the train from the left side of the engine. Any railroader knows that engineers ALWAYS sit on the right-hand side. I have nothing against poetic license, but obvious errors . . . Carl Blesch Bell Labs - Naperville, Ill. IH 2A-159, (312) 979-3360 ihuxm!prgclb
res@ihuxn.UUCP (06/23/83)
I do not know the dates for the following, but I believe that the following is correct from my recollection. Back in antiquity (probably the mid-'50s) there were no standards for highway markings or other traffic control signals (such as STOP signs). In the 1950's timeframe a set of federal guidelines was developed which included such things as the sizes and colors of the signs (red octagons for STOP signs, orange rectangles for construction warnings, triangular YIELD signs, etc.). Over a period of time signs not following the guidelines have been replaced as they rusted out or whatever with ones that do meet these guidelines. I do not know if these rules are now strong enough to call "requirements" or not (that is, if failure to comply costs the states any cash). Subsequently, an international effort was made to standardize traffic signs and signals. The federal guidelines were modified to include the agreed-upon international signs (such as the red circle with a red diagonal to indicate prohibition of the thing denoted on the sign). The only American sign to become an international standard is the red octogon ... the friendly American STOP (or ARRET, or ... ) sign. Rich Strebendt ...!ihnp4!ihuxn!res
mjl@ritcv.UUCP (06/24/83)
Yellow stop signs (and yield signs) were standard in New York until
the early 60's as well.
Mike Lutz
{allegra,seismo}!rochester!ritcv!mjlgrw@fortune.UUCP (06/26/83)
I know that all of the road signs in California
used to be put up by the California Automobile Club,
'way back before there was a CalTrans.
-Glennpadpowell@wateng.UUCP (PAD Powell[Admin]) (06/27/83)
Yellow, red, who cares? Up here in Canada we have the French Farce Whoops! I mean Fact to deal with. I Montreal last year I was driving along, and came to the biggest STOP! ARRET! signs I have ever seen. I stopped. Kerblam! I was rear ended. I got out, and the other driver said to me "Hey, whydidja stop?" Only in Canada? Pity. Patrick Powell
futrelle@uiucdcs.UUCP (06/30/83)
#R:ucf-cs:-97800:uiucdcs:10600109:000:174 uiucdcs!futrelle Jun 29 14:04:00 1983 A friend of my brother's picked up a few old newspapers and on the front page, by pure coincedendce, there was a story about the city changing from yellow to red stop signs.