WASHINGTON, Nov. 27, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

TRAFFIC SIGNAL

Profile America — Friday, November 27th. The first traffic signal with indicators for stop, go and caution was patented this month in 1923. The green light went to African-American inventor Garrett Morgan, who decided to do something after witnessing a collision between a car and a horse-drawn wagon on a Cleveland street. At the time, there were already more than 15 million motor vehicles on the nation's roads. Morgan's three-position signal was manually operated by a traffic officer during peak hours. This invention, with its staffing and mechanical requirements, was soon overtaken by the now-familiar system of green, yellow and red lights. Today's traffic signals regulate the movements of the approximately 256 million motor vehicles in the U.S. You can find more facts about America's people, places and economy, from the American Community Survey, at www.census.gov.

Sources:
Kane's Famous First Facts 4225
Morgan and traffic signal: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/garrett-morgan-patents-three-position-traffic-signal 
Vehicles in 1923: Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, p. 716
Vehicle registrations: http://www.statista.com/statistics/183505/number-of-vehicles-in-the-united-states-since-1990/

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotions of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button). 

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau