Vision Problems And Traffic Signals

"Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura" (sundowne36) 06/28/2014 at 18:50 • Filed to: None

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(Note: The following is a tale of when I rode shotgun in the Lex as my younger brother drove. I should probably say he can't tell the difference between certain colors on a traffic signal, namely red, yellow and possibly green - well, if he lived in Sycamore. Thankfully, he knew the last light was go, but....)

Now, if you lived in the Pacific Northwest longer than I have, you'd probably find yourself in Flashing Yellow Arrow country designed to replace this.

With this.

It's not that hard to see what's the difference - though the safety aspect and efficiency is far better than the signal above.

But unfortunately, my brother spent most of the time OUT of Seattle and in Tacoma, so here's what happened.

We're arriving at an intersection equipped with a flashing yellow ball (arrows didn't really come to Seattle's signals by 2011... Oh, and there wasn't a sign as posted above) and there was no oncoming traffic on the southbound for 4th avenue. So I sat back, forgot the fact that he was technically colorblind and instead of turning, he just stopped.

Me: "Dude, what are you doing?"

Bro: "Stopping. It's a flashing red light, isn't it?"

Me: "Er... It's yellow. You don't have to stop."

Bro: "Then why is it flashing?"

Me: "... Please tell me they told you that there's a flashing yellow arrow at x Driving School."

Bro: "... No?"

A car comes up honking at us, brother turns onto the street to Sears.

I could see where he's coming from though I didn't expect him to get his license with that kind of vision...

... I just wonder if he's going to be fine knowing California has something similar?

Ferrero1911 > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura 06/28/2014 at 19:02

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I live in California and I have never seen a flashing yellow arrow (actually I've never seen a flashing yellow arrow anywhere). Typically there will just be a green light and left turn yields. Sometimes there is a green arrow for a protected left that changes to a green light for left to yield. Less often there is a solid red arrow for protected left turns that turns green when it's your turn.

Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura > Ferrero1911 06/28/2014 at 19:12

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I think the MUTCD got fed up with people getting into accidents at those turn-yield intersections (condition known as the Yellow trap ) that they implemented a flashing yellow - telling drivers the oncoming traffic still has a green light rather than using the current signals mostly because drivers will assume the oncoming signal is changing as well.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > Satoshi "Zipang" Katsura 06/28/2014 at 19:37

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They have those in Kentucky now.