nightjar nightjar@ wrote:
"Tom Anderson" wrote in message
.li...

On Tue, 25 Oct 2005, John Rowland wrote:


Why doesn't Britain extend the "flashing amber" signal from meaning "you
can go if no pedestrians are crossing" to also mean "you can go if no
cars are crossing"?

Good idea.

I'm not entirely sure about using flashing amber, though: rightly or
wrongly, people associate amber with 'go' - and, indeed, 'go, quick!' -
which is not what you want to say here.


Flashing amber is very distinct from a steady amber and the French use the
system quite successfully on quiet junctions at night.

And the United States, with some slightly different meanings. Late at
night, it is not unusual to see lights flashing "yellow" (watch for
cross traffic, but you have the right of way) for a major street and red
(come to a complete stop and proceed only when it is safe to do so) for
a side street. Flashing red for all traffic is the default power-on
failure mode for most lights.

A single-bulb installation with flashing red is used where needed to
emphasize a "stop" sign, since it carries the same meaning. Flashing
amber, on its own, can have the same meaning as part of a traffic light,
but might have several other meanings, depending on the context.