I believe that German lights have the red-&-amber phase as well, but as I've never been there I can't confirm that. France follows the normal American & Irish convention of going straight from red to green, as does Jersey in the Channel Islands (not that they have that many lights!).

I've never seen the point of the red+amber phase. Some say it acts as a "get ready to go" signal, but as it's only on for a couple of seconds why not just go straight to green? If it takes someone a couple of seconds to get into gear with a manual transmission, they'll still pull away at the same time anyway.

Other British light peculiarities (from an American perspective):

* We have green filter arrows for left and right turns at some junctions, but no amber or red arrows. When a green arrow is coming on alongside a normal red light, it just pops on (no red+amber first). Go figure...

* We don't have flashing red lights, except at rail crossings (and a few to stop traffic at fire station exits etc.).

* Lights aren't switched to flashing amber/flashing red at night as in some U.S. cities. Flashing amber is used only at pedestrian crossings. We have some traffic lights located in the middle of a straight road rather than at an intersection which are operated solely by someone pressing a button to cross the street. These don't have the red+amber phase -- Their sequence is green, amber, red, flashing amber, green. You're allowed to proceed on the flashing amber so long as the pedestrians have cleared the crossing. (Strangely enough, you're not allowed to run them over on green either.... [Linked Image])

* Turns on red aren't allowed anywhere. I've found many Brits who seem to find it difficult to grasp this American concept.


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 07-09-2003).]