Editing Stop sign (section)

==History==
[[Image:Yellow stop sign.jpg|framed|Yellow U.S. 1924–1954 stop sign]] 
The first stop sign was created in 1914<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-08-28 |title=The Town Crier: Stop! (part 1) |url=https://www.dailycitizen.news/news/lifestyles/the-town-crier-stop-part-1/article_d2a15854-23ae-11ed-88e0-4fc249f6a2da.html |access-date=2023-08-08 |website=The Daily Citizen |language=en}}</ref> by Detroit police sergeant Harold "Harry" Jackson, who was working as a traffic guard at a busy city intersection. One of the cross streets had a particularly low-visibility turn entering the intersection, almost always forcing Sgt. Jackson to slow down and hold back the traffic entering from that street. Looking for ways to make his job easier, he took a rectangular piece of plywood, cut off the corners to give it a distinct shape, wrote "STOP" over the center and placed facing the street. He noticed that his innovation improved the overall traffic flow through the intersection. After he shared his experience with fellow officers at a meeting, the practice started to spread across the city intersections.<ref name ="slate">{{Cite journal|url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2010/05/the-quest-to-design-a-better-stop-sign.html|title=The quest to design a better stop sign|journal=Slate |date=25 May 2010 |last1=Vanderbilt |first1=Tom }}</ref>
The next year, 1915, stop signs were adopted across [[Michigan]].<ref name="signalfan">Signalfan. [http://signalfan.freeservers.com/road%20signs/stopsign.htm History of the Stop Sign in America]. 1997.</ref>{{Better source needed|date=July 2018}}<ref>{{cite news|last1=Greenbaum |first1=Hilary |last2=Rubinstein |first2=Dana |date=9 December 2011|title=The Stop Sign Wasn't Always Red|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/11/magazine/stop-sign.html|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=10 February 2013}}</ref> The first ones had black lettering on a white background and were {{convert|24|x|24|in|cm}}, somewhat smaller than the current sign. As stop signs became more widespread, a rural-dominated committee supported by the [[American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials|American Association of State Highway Officials]] (AASHO) met in 1922 to standardize them and selected the octagonal shape that has been used in the United States ever since. The unique eight-sided shape of the sign allows drivers facing the back of the sign to identify that oncoming drivers have a stop sign and prevent confusion with other traffic signs. Another consideration of the AASHO was visibility and driver literacy, as summarized in subsequent State Highway Commission reports in the states of the U.S., was that the goal for signs "standardized throughout the Union" was that "The shape of the sign will indicate what it will mean. This has been worked up very carefully by the best-qualified men in the country and men who have made a thorough study of this question. It has been found that so many people have trouble in reading the sign that the shape of the sign is very much more important than the reading matter on it."<ref>"Seventeenth and Eighteenth Reports of the State Highway Commission to the Governor of Virginia for the Twenty-one months ending June 30, 1925" (Virginia State Highway Commission, 1925) p.37</ref>

The octagon was also chosen so that it could be identified easily at night since the original signs were not reflective.{{Citation needed|date=May 2020}} The more urban-oriented National Conference on Street and Highway Safety (NCSHS) advocated a smaller red-on-yellow stop sign.<ref name="signalfan" /> These two organizations eventually merged to form the Joint Committee on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which in 1935 published the first [[Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices]] for Streets and Highways (MUTCD) detailing the stop sign's specifications.

The MUTCD's stop sign specifications were altered eight times between 1935 and 1971. From 1924 to 1954, stop signs bore a red or black '''{{smallcaps|stop}}''' legend on a yellow field.<ref name="signalfan" /> Yellow was chosen because fade-resistant red materials were not available.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Felton|first1=Ryan|title=Here's Why Stop Signs Are Red|url=https://jalopnik.com/heres-why-stop-signs-are-red-1819456333|access-date=16 October 2017|work=Jalopnik|publisher=[[Gawker Media]]|date=14 October 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Manaul on Uniform Traffic Control Devices|date=1954|publisher=Department of Commerce|page=2|url=https://ceprofs.civil.tamu.edu/ghawkins/MUTCD-History_files/1948%20MUTCD/1954%20Revision%20to%201948%20MUTCD.pdf|access-date=16 October 2017}}</ref> [[retroreflector|Retro-reflective]] or self-lit signs were permitted in the 1935 MUTCD; retro-reflective ones were first required by the 1948 edition of the MUTCD, which also called for a {{convert|2+1//2|ft|m|2|abbr=off|adj=on}} height from the road crown to the bottom of the stop sign.<ref>Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. 1948 Edition. Part 1A, Section 31. "[A stop sign] shall be mounted so that its bottom will be 2{{frac|1|2}} feet above the crown of the roadway."</ref> The 1954 MUTCD newly specified a white {{Smallcaps|stop}} legend on a red field, and increased the mount height specification to 5 feet in rural areas.<ref name="signalfan" /> Red [[traffic signals|traffic lights]] signify ''stop'', so the new specification unified red as a stop signal whether given by a sign or a light. The current mounting height of {{convert|7|ft|m|2|abbr=on}} was first specified in 1971.<ref name="signalfan" /> 

===US mandate, international adoption===
The MUTCD stop sign was already widely deployed in the United States when the use of other types of stop signs was eliminated in 1966.<ref name="signalfan" /> In 1968, this sign was adopted by the [[Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals]] as part of [[United Nations Economic Commission for Europe]]'s effort to standardize road travel across borders. The Convention specifies that '''{{Smallcaps|stop}}''' be written in English or the national language, and also allows a circular sign with red legend. Forty European countries<ref>{{cite web |title=Convention on Road Signs and Signals |url=https://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetailsIII.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=XI-B-20&chapter=11&Temp=mtdsg3&lang=en |website=United Nations Treaty Collection |publisher=United Nations}}</ref> are party to the convention.