Stop, Eno!

I was working on a major proposal recently and got way behind in my reading. But the AppsLab blog links to this story on the American origins of the stop sign. Excerpt:

At a time when there were no driver’s licenses, speed limits or clear lane demarcations, the notion of a stop sign was revolutionary. In fact, aside from the occasional road markers letting riders on horseback know how far they were from the next city, there was no road or street signage at all. [William Phelps] Eno, scion of a wealthy New England family who never learned to drive, helped change all that. In a 1900 article titled “Reforming Our Street Traffic Urgently Needed,” for Rider and Driver magazine, he proposed placing stop signs at intersections.

Be sure to read further in the article for the whole thing about sign shapes that impressed Jake Kuramoto so much.