The first yield sign in the United States was introduced in 1950.
It appeared in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at the intersection of First Street and Columbia Avenue. Clinton E. Riggs, a Tulsa police captain, designed and installed the sign after working on ways to control right-of-way at a dangerous intersection. Riggs developed the sign concept earlier, but the first U.S. installation dates to 1950.
The original American sign did not look exactly like today’s familiar red-and-white triangle. It used a distinctive keystone shape and the wording “YIELD RIGHT OF WAY.” The yield rule itself was older than the sign; the device gave drivers a visible way to communicate that rule.
A frequent mix-up is 1954, when the yield sign was added to the national MUTCD. Its design later changed, and the 1971 MUTCD adopted the modern red-and-white appearance. In Britain and several other countries, the same idea is usually labeled “Give Way.”