Stop signs were introduced in the US in the 1910s, but were not standardized until the 1920s. The American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) developed the octagonal shape as a standard in 1922, and the white-on-red version was introduced in 1954. AASHO and the First National Conference on Highway and Traffic Safety (NCSHS) merged in 1935 and published the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways (MUTCD), which became national law in 1966. Other countries have adopted the US-style stop sign, often with the word STOP in the local language.
Stop signs began appearing in various American cities in the 1910s. Both Blair, Nebraska and Detroit, Michigan introduced stop signs in 1915. Detroit also had the first tricolor traffic signal, installed in 1920. In the early days, stop signs were not standardized or used everywhere. In the 1920s, national organizations began to standardize the use and appearance of stop signs, and the white-on-red version used today was not introduced until 1954.
The first national group to create rules regarding stop signs, the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO), met in 1922 and developed the octagonal shape as a standard. At this time, stop signs had the word STOP painted in black on a white background. The First National Conference on Highway and Traffic Safety (NCSHS) came up with a series of ideas about shapes and colors for different types of street signs in 1924, one of which was the stop sign. in white on red. However, AASHO adopted black letters on a yellow background as the stop sign standard the same year, as the combination was shown to have the best visibility. This style of stop sign, mounted two to three feet (0.6 to 0.9 m) above the ground, remained the standard until 1954.
AASHO and NCSHS merged into a single entity in 1935 and published the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Streets and Highways (MUTCD). They continued to publish updated versions until 1971, and the organization still exists today. In 1954, due to improved reflective paints, the white-on-red stop sign finally replaced the black-on-yellow version. In 1966, following the MUTCD standards became national law. The last MUTCD, published in 1971, stipulated that stop signs be posted seven feet (2.1 m) from the ground.
Other countries have used various styles of stop signs over the years. The European Union recently adopted the stop sign style of the United States as part of its standardization efforts. Other countries around the world have stop signs modeled after the United States, often with the word STOP in the local language. Thailand, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, French Canada, and most Central and South American countries have stop signs that follow MUTCD guidelines in all cases except language.
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