Talk:Traffic light

3-way traffic light: History Section

Garrett Morgan invented the modern 3-way traffic light, yet it is nowhere on this page nor is it linked to his Wikipedia page. Domme2040 (talk) 18:06, 3 July 2023 (UTC)

@Domme2040 then add it Jèrriais janne (talk) 21:13, 8 September 2023 (UTC)

Title breaks if table is hidden

Standard meanings for traffic lights in the United States (MUTCD, Chapter 4) 83.168.137.1 (talk) 00:38, 14 January 2024 (UTC)

Colorblindness

How about a mention of the fact that the most common form of colorblindness (1 in 14 males) can't distinguish between red, yellow, and green? I once read that green lights are blueish-green in order to be distinguishable for those with red-green colorblindness. Is this universal? Regulated? Since when?

I recall an anecdote where some American town with a large Irish population flipped its traffic lights, so that green was on top, but this had to be undone because the orientation of the lights must be consistent for colorblind people. But if this were the only way for them to distinguish the lights, wouldn't they have to stare at the lights rather than relying on peripheral vision?

Just a couple of things I'm curious about; and I imagine there might be more to say on the topic. SSSheridan (talk) 10:10, 23 February 2024 (UTC)

In Hanoi i've seen green light color differ slightly across modules, some are green-yellow while others are green-blue (but still not blue as Japan) but still could not find any document about that, do you still remember where did you read about that blueish-green?

Yeah all horizontal traffic light (at least in my country) have red at the end of the horizontal bar and green near the vertical pole Stvk Công Cuối (VN) (talk) 16:13, 26 August 2024 (UTC)

I work in the industry and have never heard of this happening. Perhaps it is specific to a certain area or a rumour. Takerlamar (talk) 22:49, 27 August 2024 (UTC)

Terminology - traffic light vs. traffic signal

I'm interested in opening a discussion about potentially changing the title of this article to 'traffic signal'. This is the terminology used in transport planning and engineering circles at least in my field.

I'm aware this may brush up against WP:COMMONNAME. But I think the spinoff terms from this - e.g. 'signal phasing', 'signal controls', etc. - lend themselves to the main article being aligned to these. Takerlamar (talk) 04:03, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

Walk buttons as placebos

The vast majority of "Press button to cross" buttons at pedestrian crossings have been shown to be nothing more than placebos designed to give individuals the illusion of control over the signal. This is especially obvious at such crossings in the United States with the Stop Hand/Walk Figure symbol + timer displays that usually start flashing the orange Stop Hand after displaying the Walk Figure with 10, 15 or 20 seconds left to cross, at which point in a 4 way intersection a traffic light will change from red to green within 2-5 seconds after the Walk timer controlling the pedestrian crossing parallel with the traffic light controlling the flow of traffic (both sets of signals on the N-S or E-W flowing directions of pedestrian and vehicle traffic in a given 4-stop intersection). They are on a routine timer, much like the vast majority of vehicle traffic lights, and will invariably use the same routine constantly, regardless of whether or not an aforementioned "Press button to cross" button has been pressed or not, leading to the misconception/misperception of pedestrian crossing control by pedestrians via illusion. I feel this fact, no matter how anecdotal it may seem, should be added into the section of the article on pedestrian crossings and the signals used to convey to pedestrians when to/not to cross at them. Apologies that this was so verbose; I could not for the life of me find a way to put things more succinctly,or I most definitely would have. 68.49.126.217 (talk) 05:22, 24 February 2025 (UTC)