ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Non-US Electrical Systems & Trades The End of the Bulb

I've never really seen the point of the red-&-amber phase here. All it seems to do is encourage certain drivers to start off before green. It's also interesting to note that where we have a separate green "filter" arrow for turns, that can just come on with the red without any amber first.

Our neighbors across the water in Ireland have lights which just go straight from red to green, as do those in the Channel Islands.

By the way, we do not have any amber or red arrows, and for North American readers, neither do we have turns on red (except where there's the aforementioned green arrow illuminated simultaneously).


As Hutch said, that's standard for our pedestrian crossing lights. It's not used where there are also pedestrian lights at an intersection with regular lights. It's only on the lights which are normally located in the middle of the block with the sole purpose of stopping traffic for pedestrians to cross.

Whereas American lights flash the "Don't walk" or "red hand" immediately before going back to the solid "Don't walk" indication, ours flash the "green man" (walk) signal, and the amber for cars flashes at the same time.

http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/signs01.htm

http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/18.htm#172

They've started introducing different types of pedestrian crossing lights recently though, some of which now use the regular red/amber before green. Why we need a half dozen different types with varying light placement and different sequences, I have no idea.




One thing I have noticed about some French lights is that there's actually very little difference between the colors. In the U.K., the U.S., etc. red and amber are clearly and distinctly red and amber.

Some of the lights in France seem to use a reddish-orange for one and a not-so-reddish-orange for the other, and at first glance you can't actually tell which is which (without looking at the position on the signal head).


I've had to explain this American sign to a few fellow Brits before:




[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 04-22-2006).]