You won’t believe some of the answers.

Let's start with cars.

How long have they been around? 

The first car was built in 1885–1886 by Carl Benz.

The first stationary gasoline engine developed by Carl Benz was a one-cylinder two-stroke unit which ran for the first time on New Year's Eve 1879.

The first motor cycle?

In 1885, Gottlieb Daimler of Germany invented the first gas-engined motorcycle. The gas engine was attached to a wooden bike.

The pneumatic tyre?

Robert W. Thomson, a Scottish engineer, first patented the air-filled tyre. Unfortunately the idea was too early for its time and was not a commercial success.

In 1888 John Boyd Dunlop (photo) of Belfast, Ireland, became the second inventor of the pneumatic tyre.

The first traffic light?

An electric traffic light was developed in 1912 by Lester Wire, a policeman in Salt Lake City, Utah, who also used red-green lights.

On August 5, 1914, the American Traffic Signal Company installed a traffic signal system on the corner of East 105th Street and Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio USA.

Asphalt road?

Sheet asphalt placed on a concrete base (foundation) became popular during the mid-1800s with the first such pavement of this type being built in Paris in 1858.

Finally the good old traffic sign?

The earliest road signs were milestones, giving distance or direction; for example, the Romans erected stone columns throughout their empire giving the distance to Rome. 

There you have it - some input into your useless information archive.