The traffic safety cone has been in use for decades

Sponsored by PSS

For more rubber safety conesinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.

By Laura Neitzel, EMS1 BrandFocus Staff

The original rubber traffic cone was invented by Charles D. Scanlon, a painter in the street painting department of the City of Los Angeles. He identified problems with the large wooden barricades then in use to identify “dangerous spots in the highway such as those caused by repairs, etc.”

He noted that the large wooden barriers could cause hazard to automobiles that accidentally struck them. Scanlon’s safety marker, granted a patent in 1943, was designed to return to an upright position when struck by a glancing blow.

Advantages of Scanlon’s rubber safety markers were higher visibility, resilience when struck, ease of deployment and ability to be stacked for storage. But even some 80 years after Scanlon’s patent, there was still room for improvement, especially in the area of public safety, where traffic cones are deployed to create a protected workspace for emergency personnel responding to roadway or roadside incidents.

The important role traffic cones play in public safety

According to the Emergency Responder Safety Institute, 11 fire and EMS workers were struck and killed by vehicles while working roadway incidents in 2022. Law enforcement officers, tow operators, road service technicians and transportation workers accounted for an additional 39 fatalities.

While there is an entire genre of materials dedicated to educating the public to “move over and slow down” when emergency personnel (and road workers) are present, inattentive or speeding drivers and lack of visibility still contribute to accidents and fatalities. Just ask Rachel Carcell, a captain in the Geneva-on-the-Lake Fire Department in Ohio.

The population of the town on the shores of Lake Erie, dubbed “Ohio’s first summer resort,” balloons in summer with tourists and a motorcycle rally.

When an accident occurs, it’s likely at least one of the town’s narrow two lanes of travel needs to be channelized to make the scene safer for EMS responders working with patients, says Carcell. “But people don’t always pay attention, which means you have to pay more attention to yourself.”

EMS workers need to be able to focus on the patient – not on roadway safety – which is why they deserve every tool at their disposal to get drivers’ attention and make roadway emergency scenes more visible.

This is where traffic cones come back into the story.

Rubber traffic cones are great, but…

Traffic channelizing devices are critical to making a safe space for emergency personnel to respond to a roadway incident.

While the ubiquitous rubber traffic cone is a vast improvement over the wooden barricade, the same challenges Scanlon’s design partially overcame with respect to wooden barriers – portability, resilience, visibility and storage space – still persist, especially in emergency response operations.

A key shortcoming for emergency responders is the amount of room a stack of cones takes up in an already-cramped ambulance or apparatus. They also are heavy and cumbersome to deploy when you have a whole stack of them, especially because sometimes they stick together, says Carcell.

Another shortcoming with traditional rubber cones is the cost of replacement. While rubber cones can pop back upright after a glancing blow, a direct hit renders them unusable and unrepairable. Just look at any highway construction zone and you’re likely to see at least one fallen, mangled cone.

Traffic cones are essential for emergency responder safety, so replacing them (despite unexpected and unwelcome costs) is important.

Building a better traffic safety cone

The old saying, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door,” speaks to both the power of innovation and the challenge of improving on an existing product widely in use.

PSS, an Ohio-based company whose mission is to make travel safer, took on the mousetrap challenge of improving the safety marker with a new design.

“The design was actually conceived by a Florida law enforcement officer,” explained David McKee, director of marketing and government relations for PSS. “He found a new way to store cones in his vehicle that would be quick to deploy as well as trunk friendly where you could actually carry them without sacrificing a lot of space.”

PSS worked with the officer for over two years to fine-tune the FirstGard foldable traffic safety cone. The resulting product solves some of the annoyances inherent in rubber traffic cones – like bulkiness and irreparability – while improving emergency scene visibility.

At 34 inches in diameter and a height of 28.75 inches, FirstGard’s tripod-shaped design has a larger footprint than traditional cones. This not only commands more conspicuous road surface area, but the vivid, safety-orange base along with highly- reflective white bands – made with industry-leading 3M retroreflective sheeting – enhances visibility in a range of lighting conditions day and night.

FirstGard is the first cone on the market with a large amount of space dedicated to reflective white bands, a U.S. Department of Transportation requirement to increase night-time visibility.

Despite its larger footprint and larger surface area for 3M reflective sheeting, FirstGard is both lightweight and durable.

Folding down to just 1 ½ inches in thickness, FirstGard cones use minimal storage space. A carrying bag holds five FirstGard cones for easy storage and deployment.

Another design improvement (and improvement for department budgets) is that the connecting hinge and pins are replaceable components. With a simple repair kit, FirstGard can be repaired if damaged, getting cones back in service quickly while saving money for cash-strapped departments.

Putting FirstGard to the test

Geneva-on-the-Lake FD was one of the first agencies to start using FirstGard cones.

“They were so easy to use,” said Carcell. “You pull them out, unfold them, set them down and go to the next one. Pick up is also very easy. Just pick it up, fold it and stick it in the bag and it’s done.”

Watch Carcell and others deploy FirstGard cones:

Another advantage is that the tripod design can serve a dual purpose: to protect emergency response crews and extend protection to water supply lines – another frequent casualty of inattentive or aggressive drivers.

Emergency responders need effective but easy-to-deploy tools that take away the often-difficult task of gaining a driver’s attention so they can focus on providing care and recovery, clearing highway scenes quickly and getting traffic moving again. FirstGard is a valuable tool for doing just that, while keeping responders safe on the scene.

For more information on FirstGard and other traffic channelizing solutions, visit PSS.

Cone-shaped marker used for traffic management

Traffic cones are usually used to divert traffic. The reflective sleeves are for nighttime visibility; the bosses at the top ease handling and can be used for attaching caution tape.

Traffic cones, also called pylons, witches' hats,[1][2] road cones, highway cones, safety cones, caution cones, channelizing devices,[3] construction cones, roadworks cones, or just cones, are usually cone-shaped markers that are placed on roads or footpaths to temporarily redirect traffic in a safe manner. They are often used to create separation or merge lanes during road construction projects or automobile accidents, although heavier, more permanent markers or signs are used if the diversion is to stay in place for a long period of time.

History

[

edit

]

Traffic cones were invented by Charles D. Scanlon, an American who, while working as a painter for the Street Painting Department of the City of Los Angeles, was unimpressed with the traditional wooden tripods and barriers used to mark roads which were damaged or undergoing repainting. Scanlon regarded these wooden structures as easily broken, hard to see, and a hazard to passing traffic.[4] Scanlon's rubber cone was designed to return to an upright position when struck by a glancing blow. The patent for his invention was granted in 1943.[5][6]

Traffic cones were first used in the United Kingdom in 1958, when the M6 motorway opened. These traffic cones were a substitute for red lantern paraffin burners being used during construction on the Preston Bypass.[7] In 1961, David Morgan of Burford, Oxfordshire, UK believes that he constructed the first experimental plastic traffic cones, which replaced pyramid-shaped wooden ones previously used.[8]

In the United States on May 1, 1959, the Pacific Gas and Electric Company in Oakland, California adopted the policy of placing orange safety cones at the left front and left rear corners of their service trucks while parked on the street to increase visibility and safety for the workers. This policy was implemented as the result of a suggestion by their employee, Russell Storch, a cable splicer. He was awarded $45 for his suggestion. This policy is still in use today.[9]

Modern traffic cones are usually made of brightly colored thermoplastic. PVC from bottles can be recycled to make traffic cones.[10]

Usage

[

edit

]

Traffic management

[

edit

Want more information on full body harness for humans? Feel free to contact us.

]

Traffic cones are typically used outdoors during road work or other situations requiring traffic redirection or advance warning of hazards or dangers, or the prevention of traffic. Traffic cones are also used to mark where children are playing or to block off an area. For night time use or low-light situations traffic cones are usually fitted with a retroreflective sleeve to increase visibility. On occasion, traffic cones may also be fitted with flashing lights for the same reason.

In the US, cones are required by the US Federal Highway Administration's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) to be fitted with reflective white bands to increase night-time visibility. Reflective collars, white strips made from white reflective plastic, slip over cones snugly, and tape or adhesive can be used to permanently attach the collars to the cones.

Types and sizes

[

edit

]

Traffic cone on the right is used to indicate that no parking is allowed (UK)

Traffic cones are designed to be highly visible and easily movable. Various sizes are used, commonly ranging from around 30 cm (11.8 in) to a little over 1 m (39.4 in). Typical traffic cones are fluorescent "safety" orange, but other bright colors including yellow, pink, red, and lime green are also used, with the color depending on context in some countries. The cones usually have a retroreflective strip (commonly known as "flash tape") to increase their visibility at night.

In the United States, they come in such sizes as:

• 12 in (305 mm), 1.5 lb (0.68 kg) – for indoor/outdoor applications
• 18 in (457 mm), 3 lb (1.4 kg) – for outdoor applications such as freeway line painting
• 28 in (711 mm), 7 lb (3.2 kg), (also called Metro cones for their use in cities) – for non-highway applications such as local streets
• 28 in (711 mm), 10 lb (4.5 kg) – for freeway/highway applications (with reflective stripes)
• 36 in (914 mm), 10 lb (4.5 kg) – for freeway/highway applications (with reflective stripes)

In New Zealand, they are compliant in two sizes for use on all roads; these are:

• 35 in (900mm), up to 16.5 lb (7 kg) - for all activities on all roads. (with two reflective stripes)
• 17.7 in (450mm), up to 16.5 lb (7 kg) - for the protection of wet road markings only (with one reflective stripe)

Other forms

[

edit

]

Cones are easy to move or remove. Where sturdier (and larger) markers are needed, construction sites use traffic barrels (plastic orange barrels with reflective stripes, normally about the same size as a 55-US-gallon (46 imp gal; 208 L) drum). When a lane closure must also be a physical barrier against cars accidentally crossing it, a Fitch barrier, in which the barrels are filled with sand, or a Jersey barrier is used.

In many countries such as Australia and in some American states such as California, traffic barrels are rarely seen; pillar-shaped moveable bollards are instead used where larger and sturdier warning or delineation devices are needed. Typically, bollards are 1,150 mm (45 in) high fluorescent orange posts with reflective sleeve and heavyweight rubber bases. Larger devices such as barrier boards may be used instead of cones where larger areas need to be excluded or for longer periods.

Indoor and non-traffic use

[

edit

]

Cones are used to lay out courses for autocross competitions.

Cones are also frequently used in indoor public spaces to mark off areas which are closed to pedestrians, such as a restroom being out of order, or to denote a dangerous condition, such as a slippery floor. They can be used on school playgrounds to limit areas of a playing field, and on ice rinks to define class, private party, or private lesson areas. Some of the cones used for this purpose are miniature, as small as 5 cm (2.0 in) tall, and some are disposable full-size cones made of biodegradable paper.

Being distinctive, easily portable and usually left unguarded, traffic cones are often stolen. Students are frequently blamed, to the extent that the British National Union of Students has attempted to play down this "outdated stereotype".[11]

In popular culture

[

edit

]

Duke of Wellington statue, with cone (and reserve cones on standby)

In 2007, artist Dennis Oppenheim commemorated the traffic cone with a monumental sculpture of five 20' (six metre) tall cones. They were installed temporarily in Miami,[12] Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park,[13] and Seoul, Korea.

An orange-and-white cone is the logo used by VideoLAN (best known for its VLC media player software).

German group Kraftwerk featured traffic cones on their first two albums, as well as in their concerts at the time.

Traditionally, but unofficially, the Wellington Statue in Glasgow is decorated with a traffic cone. The presence of the cone is given as the reason the statue is in the Lonely Planet 1000 Ultimate Sights guide (at number 229) as a "most bizarre monument".[14]

Television

[

edit

]

The Traffic Cones is a Belgian TV series on Nickelodeon created by Pascal Adant.[15]

See also

[

edit

]

References

[

edit

]

The company is the world’s best welding eye protection supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.