Yield: The Little Sign That Could

Yield: The Little Sign That Could The familiar downward pointing
triangle that allows traffic to keep flowing rather than stopping
sprang from the mind of a Tulsa cop. No one gave his sign much
respect, but he set out to prove them all wrong.
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Yield: The Little Sign That Could


Welcome to Within The Realm, I’m your host Steve Garrett.


Thanks for joining me here on the show where the Indian
Territory, the Ozark Mountains and the Great Plains collide.
Because of the great amount of diversity, culturally,
geographically and in experience that’s found here, anything is
Within The Realm of possibility.


Some times the things in the world around us have become so
common place, so much a part of how we do things, we’re not sure
where they came from or even anything about their beginnings.
Today’s episode is about such a thing, something that makes it a
little safer for you to get from place to place. After these
words about our sponsors, we’ll get into Oklahoma’s contribution
to traffic control signs.


(music/Commercials)


It’s good to have you back for another installment of Within The
Realm. It’s my goal to take the next few minutes to entertain you
and maybe lay a little knowledge on you that you didn’t already
know.


Today’s subject is traffic signs, one in particular actually.
It’s the Red and White triangle with the word Yield written
across it. It the thing that makes a traffic circle work, not
bringing us to a stop, necessarily, but providing drivers with
the instruction to watch it in association with other cars on the
road.


It might be hard for a motorist in the third decade of the
twenty-first century to think of a time with out the uniform
traffic signs we have now, but everything has a beginning.


It was 1939 and Oklahoma Highway Patrolman Clinton Riggs was
participating in a fellowship at Northwestern Traffic Institute
in Chicago. One topic of discussion was the problem of motorists
rolling through uncontrolled intersections, causing accidents and
injuries. The discussion became a class assignment on how best to
address the problem.


In the next several days, Patrolman Riggs presented his idea for
a sign, there was already the stop sign that stopped traffic all
together. No, Riggs’s idea was for signage that would allow
traffic to continue to flow until one motorist needed to give the
right-of-way to another vehicle.


The sign he suggested was a keystone shaped sign with a solitary
word on it – Yield.


It was generally panned by the class as hard to understand and
somewhat unnecessary as laws, laws misunderstood and ignored by
motorists, were already on the books to determine fault in
accidents where drivers did not yeild.


The fellowship ended and Riggs rejoined the Tulsa Police
Department, served in the Second World War and returned home in
one piece. A lot had happened since his suggestion of the Yeild
sign, but he not forgotten it. He was still very much convinced
of it’s usefulness. . His Chicago detractors had convinced his to
change the sign’s wording to “SLOW Yield Right Of Way.” It wasn’t
only his class mates that thought little of his traffic control
sign. The Tulsa City attorney dismissed it and the National
Safety Council, to whom Riggs had sent a drawing of his sign,
ignored it.


By 1950, Riggs had worked his way up to an assistant chief
position with the Tulsa Police Department. He noted that the
intersection of First Street and Columbia Avenue , an unmarked
intersection, was the most dangerous crossraods in Tulsa. Without
any official permission, he and city engineer Paul Rice erected
the first Yeild Right of Way Sign.


The sign had retained it’s keystone shape and had black letters
on a yellow background so the sign could be better seen in the
dark.


Despite what the naysayers believed, that very first installation
of yeild signs decreased traffic accidents to basically zero.
Similar results were experienced at the other nine intersections
Riggs and Rice had also placed signs.


Other cities copied the idea with their own variations of shapes
and colors until the yeild sign was adopted a four short years
later by the MUTCD – the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control
Devices. The formally adopted sign was tweaked to the familiar
downward pointing triangle with Yeild written upon it’s yellow
background.


In 1971, the sign was changed to its current red and white
triangle with red lettering.


Riggs passed away in 1997 In Tulsa after having introduced other
innovations to the Police Department and earning a law degree,
The original Keystone shaped sign hangs in the Smithsonian
Institute in Washington DC.


So what does this sign that not a stop sign and quite a yellow
light do for us. It is quite genius, allowiing traffic to flow
until it doesn’t need to. Even though it met with a lot of
opposition from experts in the field, Rigg’s impetuous
installations and their positive results couldn’t be ignored. It
took only four years for the signs to go from geurilla traffic
control to industry standard.


Is the main take away from this story believe in your ideas even
when no one else will or go ahead, show them all your idea will
work. I’ll let you decide and I’d like to hear your thoughts on
the matter.


Until then, whenever you slowdown at a yield sign remember at one
time it was a good idea no one else could see the benefit of.






Thanks for joining us on this episode of Within The Realm. If you
want to weigh in on the “What’s the big takeway” sweepstakes from
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Within The Realm is written and produced by me, Steve Garrett.
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Join us for another trek Within The Realm in a scant two weeks,
and as always, thanks for listening.