In article ,
Steve Walker writes:

Personally I've generally thought that at night, in many locations, it
would make a lot of sense to have a green light permanently on for the main
road, with a flashing red on the side road meaning Stop and procede when
safe. A bit like France's flashing amber, but there you still have to slow
on the main road, as the side road can also be flashing amber and traffic
may emerge without stopping.

US version has flashing amber on main road with priority, and
flashing red on side road, basically meaning give way.
Switches to this mode when traffic congestion level no longer
requires controlling by lights (or on a timer with older sets).

We could definately do with something like that, or more
traffic lights which were peak hours only. There's a series of
about 6 lights I go through driving back from my parents, and
when it's 11pm or later, I get stopped at usually 4 or 5 of
them for a couple of minutes each, and there's not another
vehicle to be seen anywhere!

I've had several US colleagues complain to me about UK traffic
lights being confusing. This caused me to think about them more
critically and compare with the US traffic lights, and on reflection,
the US traffic light control is very much better. Not something
I noticed being familiar with the UK scheme until it was drawn
to my attention though.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]