when i watch videos from outside the US, i have to wonder why some countries' lights change to yellow before they turn green, and sometimes even have a countdown to tell you when it will turn green. i can understand a countdown to tell you when it's going to turn red, just like many pedestrian crosswalks have, but a countdown to green? that only seems to CAUSE accidents.
in the US, the only time you see a yellow is when it's about to turn red. the only other time yellow is used is for a flashing caution light, and recently, a flashing yellow arrow to indicate that you may turn but must yield to oncoming traffic. there is no warning that the light is about change from red to green unless you can see the traffic light for the cross-street.
i've also read discussions about traffic light timing... there's a thing called ART: All-Red Time. Apparently when designing traffic light timing, you should always have a delay of at least one second, often even longer on high-speed roads, during which every single traffic light in the intersection is red. this allows people to clear the intersection when they entered on yellow, and then since there's delay of the driver reaction time when it goes from red to green, that's an additional delay to allow for safety, so drivers about to start into the intersection can clearly see whether the cross traffic is either already stopped, or is really going to stop (or not). to me, seeing a light turn yellow before it turns green is exactly like the lights at a drag strip, and it seems to encourage people to ignore cross traffic and instead focus on the light so they can go the instant (or before, in many cases) it turns green... and then get t-boned by someone who entered the intersection while their light was yellow.
are people really in that much of a hurry that they can't wait 1-2 seconds longer?
i've entered on a stale yellow plenty of times (this morning included). usually it's because if i actually DO stop for that yellow, i will be rear-ended by the idiot tailgating me. i can also count how many times i've run a fully red light on one hand. once was a big "oh sh**" moment because i was having an argument with my passenger and didn't notice the light till i was already in the intersection. thankfully it was like 2 am and no other cars were around so i didn't hit anyone. all other times it was on purpose - a malfunctioning light that was just stuck (not flashing - solid red), and i'd been sitting there waiting for several minutes (at least 2 complete songs had played on the radio each time), and so i cautiously went through the intersection, treating it like a 2-way stop, just like several other drivers were doing.
