[PRCo] Re: 42/38 on Smithfield Yellow-Green Light

[Joshua Dunfield]

Canada is still non-uniform.  Quebec has flashing green, which means
green + green left arrow (priority over oncoming traffic).  Obvious,
right?  (Some of the intersections have signs in French to explain
what the flashing green means.)  The arrondissement of Outremont has
horizontal signals with cutouts for the color-blind: the red light
looks like an octagon.

But in British Columbia, flashing green seems to mean the same thing
as a flashing yellow in the US: it warns you that you're coming to an
intersection with a minor cross street, over which you have priority.

Meanwhile, flashing yellow in Germany means that the signals are
turned off and you should follow the sign instead (either yield or
stop).  Germany also uses "A" signals, which mean a bus has been given
signal priority.  It's some compensation for being stuck behind a bus.

The "Barnes dance" signals in Boston used to show solid red over solid
yellow during the pedestrian phase.  At least one of those was still
in use in Somerville in November 2000; I imagine it's been replaced by
now.

-j.

On 27 October 2011 20:34, Herb Brannon <hrbran at cavtel.net> wrote:
> Thanks to "our friends", the US Government, all signals everywhere in the
> United States are all alike these days. It all started with the Uniform
> Traffic Control Act of 1973. It took a couple decades to make the country
> monotonous. Nowadays all the stupid people only have to learn one set of
> rules. Heaven forbid that any certain area of the country should have
> something which might give it a noteworthy difference (aka character) from
> any other area. At one point I did post the newest federal manual on traffic
> control devices and signs on The List. It should be somewhere in the list
> archives. *Under these uniform rules traffic signals may be mounted either
> horizontal or vertical. *
> Not only did Canton, OH have the two-tier signals with only red and green,
> but New Philadelphia, OH had three-tier signals with only three bulbs. One
> street had, from top to bottom, red, yellow, and green lenses while the
> cross street had, again from top to bottom, green, yellow and red (on the
> bottom) lenses.
>
> On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 14:17, Bob Rathke <bobrathke at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>>
>> Don't the traffic lights in Pittsburgh still have the overlapping
>> green/yellow indication?
>>
>>
>>
>> I recall that in the 1960's Pittsburgh was one of the few (maybe the only)
>> city in the U.S. with overlapping traffic signals.  Also in that era,
>> Canton, Ohio had simple red & green traffic signals - no yellow.
>>
>>
>>
>> Bob
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>>
>>
>> From: "Matthew R Barry" <mrb190 at pitt.edu>
>> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org
>> Sent: Thursday, October 27, 2011 12:21:58 PM
>> Subject: [PRCo] 42/38 on Smithfield  Yellow-Green Light
>>
>> Hi Folks,
>> Take a look at this of the 42/38 on Smithfield:
>> http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=275722&nseq=45
>>
>> Remember when the traffic lights used to give us "green" THEN   "green and
>> yellow together," then "yellow," and finally "red?"    The photo illustrates
>> the former green/yellow signal.
>>
>> Matt