Were Stop Signs Always Red? #143

As the reader may surmise by question in the title, they weren’t always red. Automobile deaths and accidents were certainly not uncommon with, according to the google, the highest number of deaths per 100,000 citizens was 30.8 in 1937. This is attributed to an influx of new drivers, improved engine technology allowing cars to travel faster, and there were not many, or consistent traffic laws. When automobiles were first introduced they required special permission and some strange things to make them safe. See the November 23, 2025 entry “14 MPH and a Red Flag.”

The deaths are still too high with almost 40,000 fatalities in 2024, but the per capita number is much less and usually between 11 and 12 deaths per 100,000. The changes are attributed to improved safety features, safety standards in manufacturing, and I think quite a lot of credit can go to common and improved traffic laws. 

On the one hand, we can embrace driverless cars as they are statistically much safer than human driven ones and allow machines to protect us. Or we can live with the fact that there are about 40,000 automobile deaths each year. 

We need to continually improve safety, encourage more driverless cars, and work to eliminate human error and distracted driving. There is more, but that might be a good start. I’m not that worried about automobiles as much as I am about Artificial Intelligence and what it can do. 

We did positive things to improve cars and traffic fatalities. At the Federal level we nationalized certain driving and safety standards and they made things better. Like making all stop signs red instead of yellow way back in 1954. Can we do the same with AI?