Skip to content
  • Categories
  • Recent
  • Tags
  • Popular
  • World
  • Users
  • Groups
Skins
  • Light
  • Cerulean
  • Cosmo
  • Flatly
  • Journal
  • Litera
  • Lumen
  • Lux
  • Materia
  • Minty
  • Morph
  • Pulse
  • Sandstone
  • Simplex
  • Sketchy
  • Spacelab
  • United
  • Yeti
  • Zephyr
  • Dark
  • Cyborg
  • Darkly
  • Quartz
  • Slate
  • Solar
  • Superhero
  • Vapor

  • Default (No Skin)
  • No Skin
Collapse
Code Project
  1. Home
  2. The Lounge
  3. Holy horizontal traffic lights,Batman!

Holy horizontal traffic lights,Batman!

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved The Lounge
questionlearning
24 Posts 15 Posters 10 Views 1 Watching
  • Oldest to Newest
  • Newest to Oldest
  • Most Votes
Reply
  • Reply as topic
Log in to reply
This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
  • I Indivara

    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.

    L Offline
    L Offline
    Lost User
    wrote on last edited by
    #7

    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 fucking 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.

    Z 1 Reply Last reply
    0
    • R Rajesh R Subramanian

      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[^].

      L Offline
      L Offline
      Lost User
      wrote on last edited by
      #8

      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 fucking 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.

      R 1 Reply Last reply
      0
      • I Indivara

        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.

        P Offline
        P Offline
        Power Puff Boy
        wrote on last edited by
        #9

        Red at the bottom: I think it's that way in Elbonia. ;P

        Kitty at my foot and I waAAAant to touch it...

        1 Reply Last reply
        0
        • I Indivara

          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.

          M Offline
          M Offline
          MT_
          wrote on last edited by
          #10

          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 ! :mad:

          Thanks, Milind

          D 1 Reply Last reply
          0
          • I Indivara

            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.

            C Offline
            C Offline
            CPallini
            wrote on last edited by
            #11

            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.

            I 1 Reply Last reply
            0
            • I Indivara

              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.

              J Offline
              J Offline
              Jacquers
              wrote on last edited by
              #12

              Interesting, didn't know there were horizontal traffic lights. Here in South Africa we call traffic lights robots.

              1 Reply Last reply
              0
              • I Indivara

                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.

                Sander RosselS Offline
                Sander RosselS Offline
                Sander Rossel
                wrote on last edited by
                #13

                Indivara wrote:

                there should be an international standard

                Yeah, because, as we software developers know, that always works out well! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

                Read my (free) ebook Object-Oriented Programming in C# Succinctly. Visit my blog at Sander's bits - Writing the code you need. Or read my articles here on CodeProject.

                Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. — Edsger W. Dijkstra

                Regards, Sander

                1 Reply Last reply
                0
                • V virang_21

                  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... ;P

                  Zen and the art of software maintenance : rm -rf * Maths is like love : a simple idea but it can get complicated.

                  W Offline
                  W Offline
                  W Balboos GHB
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #14

                  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^

                  "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

                  1 Reply Last reply
                  0
                  • L Lost User

                    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 fucking 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.

                    Z Offline
                    Z Offline
                    ZurdoDev
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #15

                    CDP1802 wrote:

                    The red light simply goes out

                    And when the bulb burns out, then what? :-D

                    There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

                    L 1 Reply Last reply
                    0
                    • M MT_

                      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 ! :mad:

                      Thanks, Milind

                      D Offline
                      D Offline
                      dandy72
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #16

                      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.

                      B 1 Reply Last reply
                      0
                      • I Indivara

                        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.

                        P Offline
                        P Offline
                        patbob
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #17

                        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.

                        1 Reply Last reply
                        0
                        • D dandy72

                          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.

                          B Offline
                          B Offline
                          bVagadishnu
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #18

                          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

                          D 1 Reply Last reply
                          0
                          • B bVagadishnu

                            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

                            D Offline
                            D Offline
                            dandy72
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #19

                            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.

                            1 Reply Last reply
                            0
                            • L Lost User

                              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 fucking 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.

                              R Offline
                              R Offline
                              Rajesh R Subramanian
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #20

                              That makes sense. :thumbsup:

                              1 Reply Last reply
                              0
                              • Z ZurdoDev

                                CDP1802 wrote:

                                The red light simply goes out

                                And when the bulb burns out, then what? :-D

                                There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

                                L Offline
                                L Offline
                                Lost User
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #21

                                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 fucking 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.

                                Z 1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • L Lost User

                                  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 fucking 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.

                                  Z Offline
                                  Z Offline
                                  ZurdoDev
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #22

                                  Smart engineering. :thumbsup:

                                  There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • C CPallini

                                    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.

                                    I Offline
                                    I Offline
                                    Indivara
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #23

                                    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.

                                    C 1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • I Indivara

                                      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.

                                      C Offline
                                      C Offline
                                      CPallini
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #24

                                      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.

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      Reply
                                      • Reply as topic
                                      Log in to reply
                                      • Oldest to Newest
                                      • Newest to Oldest
                                      • Most Votes


                                      • Login

                                      • Don't have an account? Register

                                      • Login or register to search.
                                      • First post
                                        Last post
                                      0
                                      • Categories
                                      • Recent
                                      • Tags
                                      • Popular
                                      • World
                                      • Users
                                      • Groups