Linear Referencing is a good geoprocessing fucntion. In simple words Linear Referencing involves creation of a line feature that can work as a route feature. The line features could have a measure vaues and route id. The measure values could again be optional or have start-end fields or could have just one measure field. When you don't use measure values to create route shape length is used to determine the route measure values. The route id field identifies what line segments make a unique route.
Once route is created you can use the route layer to display the point event(traffic signals) or a line(pavements across the street) using a standalone table having measure values for the events.
I hope this helps.
Regards,
Harshal