Some Light Chaos
How a power outage shed light on an (apparent) driving conundrum
I should probably start keeping track of the columns that emerge from deep dives into mundane things that pique my curiosity for one reason or another. When and if I do, I can add that task in itself to the list along with this week’s submission.
So, what is it this time? Traffic lights.
I wanted to know their history, how long they’d been around, when we started using them. I found the enlightening (I’ll show myself out) backstory on the Smithsonian Magazine website in an article by author Megan Kate Nelson called A Brief History of the Stoplight: How a bright idea shaped our cities and gave the go-ahead to our love affair with the car.
To make the brief history even more brief: it all started around 1913 in America. Henry Ford’s Model T revolutionized not only transportation but also the ways in which humans could kill themselves and each other. Automobiles charged onto roads not made for them, competing for space with horse-drawn carriages, trolleys, bicycles, and, bless them, pedestrians. There were, it would seem, some quite literal growing pains and no shortage of confusion on the roads, confusion that was multiplied exponentially at intersections.
Back then, it seems that drivers just sort of went on vibes, not rules. And you can just imagine how that worked out.
Enter Cleveland engineer James Hoge. Hoge is credited with bringing some order to the absolute chaos that was traffic at the time. According to the article, he borrowed red and green lights used by railroads and tapped into electricity running on the trolley lines to create the very first electric stoplight, making the experience of getting anywhere safer and more efficient.
You may be wondering: who cares? And that’s a really great question. Thank you for asking.
We often like to congratulate ourselves for being modern; looking back at the “olden days” through sepia-colored glasses, tilting our heads with an “isn’t that quaint” attitude toward people we often view as simpletons in silly outfits who never even saw one episode of Wheel of Fortune; but I am here to tell you: the chaos of early 1900s America is alive and well and blowing through intersections in Perry, NY.
When the lights went out in Perry on the first night of July after a full day of sweltering heat, I was on the porch at the brewery. We heard a popping sound, saw the lights were out inside, and, not long after, a NYSEG truck sped up the hill.
As the text notifications of an outage started to roll in and more patrons poured outside, we watched cars and trucks just sailing down Main Street, many never so much as tapping the brakes.
More than a century later, we descend into chaos without James Hoge’s invention.
“How do people not know to treat it like a four-way stop?” We wondered, as the cars continued to breeze through, which begged an even bigger question: do people even know what to do at a four-way stop?
We agreed that anyone who’s watched another driver gun it through Pine Tavern (where U.S. Route 20A meets NY-39 for the uninitiated) without making eye contact knows the answer to that question is a profound “absolutely not.”
So, in light (sorry) of recent events, I present a PSA on basic traffic safety.
If a traffic light is out, drivers should treat the intersection as a four-way stop.
What does that mean? Good thinking to ask because this part is actually pretty important. To ensure accuracy, I used information from the New York State Department of Transportation in writing portions of this next section.
Step One: Stop.
This was the part that tripped up the majority of drivers on Main Street during the power outage, including some who, I would think, really should know the law, at least according to the markings on the side of the cars they were driving.
Step Two: Who Gets to Go First?
Drivers should proceed through the intersection in the order in which they stopped. If that order is unclear, drivers can either yield to the driver on their right or make eye contact, and one driver can wave the other through.
Bottom line: the whole protocol is based on things that may seem old-fashioned in our modern world. It requires us to delay instant gratification, think about someone other than ourselves, be patient, show some manners, and cooperate.
I know I’m being obnoxious, but really; after the things I saw and as someone who was told, “be careful because no one is stopping” when I tried to cross Main Street, I thought the least I could do was shed a little light on this issue as all-too-many drivers are clearly in the dark.
This essay originally appeared in my column in the July 9, 2026 edition of the Perry Herald in Perry, NY.
First, as a former Buffalonian and now Clevelander, here's to James Hoge. Second, thanks for reviewing what drivers should do during a power outage! And you're right--many people seem to have never learned or to have willfully forgotten the rules.
I'm always amazed at what I see on the roads, its like some people never took a driver's test. Its so dangerous our there, not to mention all the people that are high too! Stay and be safe Kate.