The Real Traffic Problem

London's first manual traffic lights were installed in 1926. Automatic traffic lights first appeared in 1933 at Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square, London's busiest road junctions. During the 1930s the face of London was decisively changed by technology which required some adaptation, as suggested by Fougasse's cartoons.

Here Cyril Kenneth Bird , pen name Fougasse, pokes fun at the similarities between traffic lights and electric neon advertising signs. Cars drive down a colourful, dazzlingly lit London street at night. The accompanying caption refers to two popular advertisements of the day and reads: 'The Real Traffic Problem: what do you do when Storm's Port says stop, but Spot's Pills say go?'

Bird used the name Fougasse, a type of French land mine, to avoid confusion with another illustrator, W Bird.