OK, I admit up front that I am a Boston driver, but I swear that my Driver’s Ed teacher actually taught us that “green means go, yellow means go faster.”
If I approach an intersection just as the light turns yellow, I accelerate a bit so as to make it though (or at least into) the intersection before it turns red. To me, this is perfectly natural behavior, and I don’t feel like I am doing anything unusual, immoral, antisocial, or illegal (as long as I don’t actually exceed the speed limit in the process, of course).
I’ve been behind some drivers, however, who slam on their brakes the moment the light turns yellow, even if it means stopping partway into the intersection and risking being rear-ended by the driver behind them. It’s as if they have been taught that never, under any circumstances, should you even CONSIDER entering an intersection if the light is yellow.
So, what does a yellow light mean to you? And why?
To me (learned to drive in TN, have held licenses there, Mississippi and Georgia), it means a quick decision - If I cannot stop safely, I will continue through. If I am too far away and it makes more sense to stop than to continue and attempt to get through/into the intersection, I’ll stop.
Amber is displayed on both transitions on traffic lights here (red, red+amber, green, amber, red), so (to me) red+amber means ‘prepare to drive’, whereas amber alone means ‘stop if you can safely do so’.
Mangetout: You get a “prepare to drive” signal? That is so cool! Here in the states we have to settle for trying to catch a glipmse of the cross-direction light to see when it turns yellow (or “amber” if you prefer).
I almost always treat yellow as “stop,” (unless I’m already in the intersection), though I was taught to read it as “caution,” (continue if you’ve got time, stop if you don’t).
I know, I’m an embarrassment to Massachusetts drivers everywhere.
I’ll admit I’m an impatient driver. If I have a reasonable chance of getting through the intersection before the light turns red I’ll gun it on yellow, anything to avoid waiting. I know that 2-3 minutes isn’t all that much time to wait, but in traffic while trying to get someplace it seems like an eternity.
“Yellow means ‘Drive like Hell, because the light’s about to change’”
Line from an old Dave Berg comic , in Mad magazine. It certainly applies to most Boston drivers (except, perversely, most of the ones I seem to be driving behind).
Heck, to most Boston drivers “red” means “Drive like hell, the light’s only just changed, and you’ve got a “grace” period.”
If I can’t come to a complete stop without slamming on my brakes then I’ll go through. If I see the yellow and can slow down without any quick change in speed then I will stop.
Stop unless you’re gonna get rear-ended or end up halfway through the intersection. That’s the legal definition in BC, but half the time I floor it because that’s what I was taught in Montreal.
In Vancouver, it generally means it’s time to start turning left.
When I was learning to drive, yellow meant “prepare to stop”. Nowdays, none of the lights mean anything. They are just pretty colors to look at as you speed under them. YMMV, but you know the lanes with the arrows that point left and right? They apparently don’t mean anything anymore either, as I constanly see people turning right out of left turning lanes.
I can see this turning into a rant, so I will mention one more thing before I stop. Is it now the custom to stop at will? In the past two days I have come across drivers stopped in the middle of the street.
I was taught that a yellow light means “clear the intersection.” In other words, if you’re in the intersection, get out, and if you’re not in it, don’t enter.
It used to mean get through the intersection fast. Until someone turned in front of me and I got a ticket for careless driving. Now it means slam on the brakes and let the guy behind me get a ticket for following too close if he hits me.
Learning to drive a car in NJ, I too was taught that yellow meant “drive faster.”
When I started driving a rig though, that isn’t really an option so now yellow to me means stop if safely able to; though “safely able” carries a slightly different meaning when your vehicle weighs 80k lbs and measures 75’ in length.
The worst, and it seems to happen far more often than is statistically probable, is that the light will change to yellow just as you enter that “gray” area where you could probably stop without putting your head through the windshield, but you could also probably beat the red legally.
I hate that. If I hesitate, I’ll stop. Otherwise I go for it.
In Australia, the law says “you must stop at a yellow light if it is safe to do so”.
Although I am an impatient driver, I tend to be impatient within the rules (never had a fine in my life, touch wood), and I am happy to brake reasonably hard, preferring not to run the yellow unless I really have to. Of course, I check my mirror first to see what the idiot behind me is going to do, and will slam it into third and step on it if I see an SUV full of 19 year-olds on my tail.
Vietnam has the coolest attitude to traffic lights I’ve ever seen. If you’re driving something with four wheels, then the colours are to be responded to just as you would in a western country. However, if you’re on a scooter (which account for probably 95% of the traffic), green means zoom through the intersection on an absolutely straight course, and the people running the red on the cross street will weave around you accordingly, and maybe drop 5mph, and red means it’s your turn to dodge the side traffic.
