at the beginning of the twentieth century traffic in big cities such as new york and london became busy and hectic carriages wagons horses and then they were joined by the newest toy of the wealthy the "automobiles" in those days crossing a street used to be a real challenge for pedestrians there were no rules for drivers the new york police department had to create a special squad to handle traffic police officers stood at intersections and tried to direct the traffic but very often they were run over by vehicles by 1912 new york city had 38000 motor vehicles something had to be done about all the traffic on the streets