A flashing *green* light?

[randomness]

I now have seen a third meaning for the non-standard traffic light signal, flashing green.

In British Columbia and Massachusetts, a flashing green means that the cross street or crosswalk changes on demand, and your flashing green right of way may turn into a red light at any time. It doesn't differ much from a flashing yellow, I guess, except that it may change to a red.

In Québec, a flashing green means you now have a protected left turn. It is equivalent to a green left arrow.

In the former Soviet Union, it means neither of these things. What it appears to mean is "Look out, your green light is about to turn yellow", and it follows a steady green light.

Not all traffic lights have flashing green lights, so it's difficult to be sure, but I can tell you from watching the lights, however, that it does *not* mean what it does in Québec, and if you treated it as one, you would get broadsided by someone accelerating to beat the yellow.

You wouldn't think people could come up with this much variation in a simple traffic light, would you?

Comments

[merlinofchaos]

Well. Using a flashing green as a protected turn is kind of foolish. As a warning that things could change soon makes some sense...

[eac.livejournal.com]

Heh.

I was expressing confusion about the meaning of traffic signs in cities in the UK recently, and was told rather pompously by a relative who shall remain nameless that the English use the standard international signs, unlike we Americans, so there should be no reason for confusion.

All this to say that apparently there can be all sorts of variation.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, the Australians use the same signs as we Americans. (I.e., yellow diamonds instead of red triangles for warning signs.) So that's the English thinking that the standard is more standard than it is.

red light, green light

[totient]

is there any truth to the story that Mao made 'red' mean 'go'?

Re: red light, green light

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I've seen it asserted both on the web and in person that the Red Guards did this, but snopes.com has nothing.

Re: red light, green light

[fin9901.livejournal.com]

I'm told that at the Indianapolis 500, the original meaning of the flags was quite different than modern days: red meant the start of the race, among other things. (The checkered has always meant the end of the race.) But since the first Indy 500 was in something like 1911, and they changed to the current meanings of the flags a few years after the first race, I don't know whether that bit of trivia actually influenced anyone or not.