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Over here in Japan traffic lights are horizontal with red on the right. In areas with heavy snowfall they are vertical with red at the top.
Back in my country, they were also vertical.
I think some countries have horizontal ones with green on the right, like the US and Thailand IIRC. I hope there are no places with red at the bottom.
If there are international drivers licenses, surely there should be an international standard for traffic lights too? Things can get confusing if you travel frequently and are colorblind. Of course since we can't agree on which side of the road to drive on, it is not really surprising.
The ones in the US that hang overhead are good because it is hard to miss seeing them. I don't see what advantages horizontal ones have, maybe cost? (Cheaper to mount because they can be lower?)
The colored arrows are particularly treacherous. Here there are green arrows to indicate which directions you can go. Australia also had red arrows too to indicate which directions should stop. And yellow arrows for trams (or are there? I don't remember that well)
Personally I prefer roundabouts. There aren't any here, just millions of unsynchronized lights without sensors that make you stop every 100m even when there is no traffic on the cross roads. Maybe they want to teach us patience.
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Indivara wrote: Australia also had red arrows too to indicate which directions should stop. And yellow arrows for trams (or are there? I don't remember that well)
No yellow arrows for trams, but those tram specific ones are illuminated in T shape. Traffic signals and rules involving trams here could be somewhat complicated:
Hook turns: If you want to turn right, be on the left lane[^] because trams are worshiped here. You'd occasionally observe one noob sitting confused in the hook stop and a bunch of angry drivers literally forcing his car to move ahead with the pressure waves generated by their incessant honking. And some would actually drive past him on his right side (illegally), leaving him in the hook stop so that the traffic on the west->east lane to start honking when they get their green signal.
Tram traffic indicators:
I've seen them to be illuminated red[^], amber[^], AND white[^], and I think that white mean that trams can go (not sure why isn't it green). And the there are signals indicating that trams don't have to worry about the traffic signals displayed, like in this mother of all traffic lights[^].
modified 13-Jul-16 22:47pm.
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The white arrow is the one I recall seeing. I may have been on La Trobe st. , the name sounds familiar but didn't see that traffic light.
The no entry sign next to it is weird. No entry where?
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Indivara wrote: The no entry sign next to it is weird. No entry where?
Looks to me like you're facing south down Swanston St, which is trams/bikes only (more or less, I've seen others  ) from there to Flinders St. So on those lights, left column is red/amber/green arrows for left turn. Next column is red/amber/green for cyclists straight ahead. Third column is red/amber/white for trams straight ahead, and the last column is for right turn traffic. No idea what #13 on top is. Clear as mud?
I believe the white "go" for trams is to avoid motorists considering it a "go" for them. Very often it is a T not an arrow.
Cheers,
Peter
Software rusts. Simon Stephenson, ca 1994. So does this signature. me, 2012
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Rajesh R Subramanian wrote: I think that white mean that trams can go (not sure why isn't it green)
Now, that's not so hard to figure out. They have different colors to help car drivers and tram drivers to see which signal is meant dor them. On a busy street with dense traffic, many lanes, signs and signals there are more important things for the drivers to pay attention to.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
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That makes sense. 
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In India traffic light is voluntary. If light is red You look to your left, you look to your right and if there is no police officer at that intersection it is a GO signal for you... 
Zen and the art of software maintenance : rm -rf *
Maths is like love : a simple idea but it can get complicated.
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Yes, it's not much different where I cone from. There's even a facebook[^] page similar to YPLAC but not restricted to parking.
Even in Japan there's a song making fun of those native to Osaka which goes like "to those born in Osaka, blue means go, yellow means go, red means go carefully". Not really true but the area is notorious for being a bit lackadaisical. Not that I can tell the difference...
The green light is called "blue" here, amber is called yellow, which isn't as strange. There was a newspaper article somewhere explaining why, I'll link it later, maybe
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virang_21 wrote: In India traffic light is voluntary.
Judging by the current habits of drivers (especially those with big-ass SUV's), that seems to be becoming the international norm.
Turn signals are all but obsolete and stop-signs are also voluntary.
My only rational interpretation of this is that since driving is now so unpredictable everyone will drive more carefully because they can't trust in anything.
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Let me confuse you a little more. 
On my way to work there are several lights without green at all. The red light simply goes out and all is well, at least as long as there is not some dunce waiting for a green light to magically appear.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
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CDP1802 wrote: The red light simply goes out
And when the bulb burns out, then what? 
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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No problem at all. The lights have security circuits that detect this (probably it's as simple as measuring the current going through the bulb) and then the yellow lights will start flashing on all traffic lights at this crossing. That means that the traffic lights are out until they ae repaired and the drivers go by whatever the traffic signs say.
The language is JavaScript. that of Mordor, which I will not utter here
This is Javascript. If you put big wheels and a racing stripe on a golf cart, it's still a f***ing golf cart.
"I don't know, extraterrestrial?"
"You mean like from space?"
"No, from Canada."
If software development were a circus, we would all be the clowns.
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Smart engineering.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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Red at the bottom: I think it's that way in Elbonia.
Kitty at my foot and I waAAAant to touch it...
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Forget about consensus between countries.... In India, in one city, we do not have consensus whether the lights should be vertical or horizontal... At one intersection it's vertical and very next one may be vertical !! But as Virang rightly said, it is followed only if there is traffic police at the intersection.
And the funniest part is, traffic police won't be standing at intersection and will stand at one corner just after it. Then you break the signal and then they catch you... and it is anybody's guess why ! 
Thanks,
Milind
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MT_ wrote: Forget about consensus between countries....
Canada has vertical traffic lights, except for Quebec, where they're horizontal. Because, y'know...Quebec being distinct and all, I guess.
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If I remember correctly, the lights also have different shapes.
Square, triangle, circle.
_______________________________________________________________
Ah don't lean on me man, cause you can't afford the ticket
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That may be right, I can't recall. It's like they're expecting first graders to be at the wheel.
But then, given the attitude of "a certain segment of their population" (I'll remain polite), there may be something to it.
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Quote: Things can get confusing if you travel frequently and are colorblind
As far as I know, if you are colorblind then you cannot get your driving license, here in Italy.
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It may be so here too, there is a test for colorblindness, or maybe they can drive with a special license of some kind.
It seems a little harsh to forbid driving since you can figure out which light it is from the location.
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Quote: It seems a little harsh to forbid driving since you can figure out which light it is from the location.
I agree. Indeed there are many rules 'out of time' here.
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Interesting, didn't know there were horizontal traffic lights. Here in South Africa we call traffic lights robots.
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Indivara wrote: surely there should be an international standard for traffic lights too
There isn't even a standard visual language for traffic lights within the US -- my local municipality is constantly inventing new ones as they go. Within sight of each other they've recently installed two cross walk lights, one that blinks yellow only, and the other that has normal traffic light modes, but then a mode where two side-by-side red lights alternate (what's that supposed to mean.. stop and wait for the pedestrian train to go by?)
I swear, its as if the marching morons[^] are running the place.
We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.
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