On Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:18:34 +0000, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

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.

Depends where you are - the US can be quite variable in junction setups.
I've never seen those up here, just flashing amber on all routes
(for "proceed with caution") for major roads with crossing minor ones, or
on some freeways they have the flashing red on the on-ramp (but no
flashing amber on the freeway side). At busy times the freeway ramp ones
continously cycle green-red and only one vehicle is supposed to go through
on green if they can (but they still have to give way to freeway traffic
once past the light)

We could definately do with something like that, or more traffic lights
which were peak hours only.

Thankfully just about all of them here have sensors to detect vehicles,
so change nicely late at night.

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.

I agree; I was surprised at how good it is when I first moved here. Being
able* to run a red light when turning without crossing traffic is
awesome for keeping things moving, and the US lights failsafe to flashing
red if there's a problem (rather than just cocking up as I've seen UK ones
do), and I particularly like the way they give priority to emergency
services vehicles (although maybe they do that in the UK now too?)

* although I think that's another variable thing, and some states don't
allow it.

'course they make up for it in the US by having some of the most ****ty
road markings and lighting that I've ever seen in any country :-) Knowing
where to place yourself on the road can be quite an art, particularly
when it's dark / wet / snowy.

cheers

Jules