A Study Of The Traffic Signals In Modern Shanghai (1919-1937)

Urban traffic is the arterial system of a city and an important infrastructure of a city,which plays an important role in urban economic life and social life.The operation of urban transportation system mainly depends on urban transportation tools and urban traffic management facilities.The difficulty of urban traffic management in modern Shanghai is very huge.In modern Shanghai especially the Shanghai international settlement,was faced with the urban situation of "more people less land",meanwhile increasing traffic flow and narrow urban roads led to the increasing traffic accidents.It makes its municipal authorities pay attention to urban traffic management gradually.Under this background,traffic signals were introduced to Shanghai.This paper focuses on the traffic signals in modern Shanghai from1919 to 1937 and studies the development of traffic signals in modern Shanghai from horizontal and vertical aspects.The purpose of this paper is to study the development of traffic signals management organizations in different regions and the setting,placement and management of traffic signal in Shanghai international settlement(the French Concession and the International Settlement)and Shanghai Chinese Community.Due to the use widely of traffic signals,it is gradually written into traffic laws and regulations.Therefore the punishing of the incident of violating traffic signals is also included in the scope of studying in this paper.At the same time,the installation and the use of modern traffic signals have a significant impact on reducing traffic accidents and speeding up urban traffic operation,which shows the social effect of traffic signals in modern Shanghai and promotes the modernization of urban road management in modern Shanghai.