"Daddy, What Is The Yellow Light For?"
Red lights, yellow lights, green lights … we sure have them here. On the bridge, there were 74 traffic light sets. We didn’t need them, but someone sure could sell them.
A yellow traffic light? Clear the intersection because you’re about to get a red light. Unless, that is, you lived in Wilkes-Barre maybe 30 years ago; then the yellow could mean several things:
One: If you had a green light and it went yellow, you were about to get a red light. No big deal. But if you had a red, it went yellow just before you got the green. (This led to many cars meeting in the intersection during the yellow – one squeezing it and one jumping it, both claiming the green but neither actually having it.)
Two: Flashing four-way yellows indicated that emergency vehicles were on the road in your part of the city. In case you couldn’t see the Big Red Fire Truck, or weren’t able to figure out what that noisy siren was for, the blinking yellow lights would tip you off that a fire engine or ambulance was racing around somewhere. With no green or red lights to control traffic, you can be sure that they will be needed after they have finished their initial job.
Three: Flashing two-way yellow, with flashing two-way red, was an after-11:00pm feature of Our Fair City. Somebody has to stop and somebody has to proceed with caution. What actually happens is the red goes with caution and the yellow continues to exceed the speed limit. If a crash, neither one can claim the green.
A yellow traffic light? Clear the intersection because you’re about to get a red light. Unless, that is, you lived in Wilkes-Barre maybe 30 years ago; then the yellow could mean several things:
One: If you had a green light and it went yellow, you were about to get a red light. No big deal. But if you had a red, it went yellow just before you got the green. (This led to many cars meeting in the intersection during the yellow – one squeezing it and one jumping it, both claiming the green but neither actually having it.)
Two: Flashing four-way yellows indicated that emergency vehicles were on the road in your part of the city. In case you couldn’t see the Big Red Fire Truck, or weren’t able to figure out what that noisy siren was for, the blinking yellow lights would tip you off that a fire engine or ambulance was racing around somewhere. With no green or red lights to control traffic, you can be sure that they will be needed after they have finished their initial job.
Three: Flashing two-way yellow, with flashing two-way red, was an after-11:00pm feature of Our Fair City. Somebody has to stop and somebody has to proceed with caution. What actually happens is the red goes with caution and the yellow continues to exceed the speed limit. If a crash, neither one can claim the green.
posted by Tom Carten at 10:11 PM
1 Comments:
Around here we have the standard green-yellow-red lights, nothing set the transportation world afire.
Around here, greean means ''GO''. Yellow means ''KEEP GOING'' and red means ''DO NOT GET CAUGHT''.
Two years ago we became allowed to turn right on reds, except in Montréal which thrives on snobbism, and I predicted that if these drivers could legally turn right on reds ,then they would also turn left...and my prediction came to be a reality.
I think that we have the best drivers because in order to have so little accidents and drive that bad, y'gotta be good!
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