# Position of green on a horizontal stoplight? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 8, 2019, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/position-of-green-on-a-horizontal-stoplight/836722 "2019-07-08T17:13:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2019, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/position-of-green-on-a-horizontal-stoplight/836722/1 "2019-07-08T17:13:13Z")
Without looking, do you expect the green light to be on the left or right of a horizontally mounted stoplight? I had never really thought about this, until I was recently somewhere (Texas) that most stoplights were horizontal, and the lights were ordered the opposite of what I expected. I guess my location (Illinois) has all (mostly?) vertical lights. ISTR that when I was younger, there was a mix of vertical and horizontal. Note - I’m asking about people in locations where traffic drives on the right. My dad was red/green colorblind, and I remember him sayig he knew which position te red and green lights were supposed to be. [This](https://www.quora.com/How-do-red-green-colorblind-people-determine-which-colors-are-which-on-a-horizontal-traffic-light) seems to be AN answer. Whether it is definitive or not, I do not know. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2019, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/position-of-green-on-a-horizontal-stoplight/836722/2 "2019-07-08T21:12:09Z")
Interested that a majority - but by no means all - seem to know the correct placement. For whatever reason, I had thought it was the opposite to what I encountered in Tex (and that the link above says is standard.) ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2019, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/position-of-green-on-a-horizontal-stoplight/836722/3 "2019-07-08T21:39:01Z")
I don’t see those very often. I picked the right side for green, because that’s what I recall. However, not being colour blind it wouldn’t really matter to me. It seems standardization is probably a very good idea in this case! ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2019, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/position-of-green-on-a-horizontal-stoplight/836722/4 "2019-07-08T21:52:12Z")
Where I’ve seen it, primarily in the American South, it’s always been green on the right. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2019, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/position-of-green-on-a-horizontal-stoplight/836722/5 "2019-07-08T22:25:28Z")
On the other hand, I have driven a bit in Seattle area where there a lot of lights reading from left to right: left turn green arrow, green light, yellow, rad. At least that’s what I recall. My father was red/green color blind and the place that drove him nuts was Atlantic City. They had el cheapo three bulb vertical traffic lights that were standard RYG in one direction and GYR in the perpendicular directions. Fortunately, the ones that had the standard alignment were the long streets like Atlantic/Ventnor, Pacific, and Oriental, while the short streets (mostly named after states) were the non-standard. I can remember these lights as recently as the 50s. I assume they changed, but I have no idea when. ---
**Author:** ![Toledo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/34f0e0/32.png) [@Toledo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toledo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2019, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/position-of-green-on-a-horizontal-stoplight/836722/6 "2019-07-08T22:56:21Z")
I kind of expect it to be on the left, but I’m not sure why. We here in Toledo also had the odd lights that Hari Seldon remembers from New Jersey. The light unit was a big single unit, not the separate units seen nowadays. There were only three bulbs inside, each of which had four colored lenses. When the top bulb was lit, it showed green in two directions and red in the other two. The bottom bulb was the reverse. The middle bulb had yellow lenses in all four directions. Which also meant that, instead of the usual sequence of Green-Yellow-Red-Green-Yellow-Red etc, the sequence was Red-Yellow-Green-Yellow-Red-Yellow-Green-etc. You got an advance warning for the green. Among other things, the advent of turn lane signals helped to get rid of these. In some places in Canada (Niagara Falls area, and around Windsor and Chatham Ontario, among others, when the lights are horizontal they are different shapes, square and round and triangular the like. I dont remember which shape was for which color, though. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2019, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/position-of-green-on-a-horizontal-stoplight/836722/7 "2019-07-08T23:04:31Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > [This](https://www.quora.com/How-do-red-green-colorblind-people-determine-which-colors-are-which-on-a-horizontal-traffic-light) seems to be AN answer. Whether it is definitive or not, I do not know. According to that link, I apparently watch too much anime and Britcoms, because I thought it was on the left. (Actually, probably the anime…I don’t remember ever seeing a stoplight in a British show…) ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2019, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/position-of-green-on-a-horizontal-stoplight/836722/8 "2019-07-08T23:56:12Z")
I’ve never seen a horizontal light, but I guessed green on the right because that seemed right to me. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/position-of-green-on-a-horizontal-stoplight/836722/9 "2019-07-09T00:18:18Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > On the other hand, I have driven a bit in Seattle area where there a lot of lights reading from left to right: left turn green arrow, green light, yellow, rad. At least that’s what I recall. Either they’ve changed since you were there or you remember wrong. The horizontal lights in Seattle have the [green on the right](https://goo.gl/maps/gxy9y2YApwFToqCQ6). ---
**Author:** ![48Willys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/db5fbb/32.png) [@48Willys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/48Willys)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/position-of-green-on-a-horizontal-stoplight/836722/10 "2019-07-09T02:46:30Z")
> [@TroutMan](#): > > Either they’ve changed since you were there or you remember wrong. The horizontal lights in Seattle have the [green on the right](https://goo.gl/maps/gxy9y2YApwFToqCQ6). While it has been over 30 years sinse I saw the only horizontal signal I have ever seen, (in Seattle), I do recall that the green light was on the left. So how did I vote? Green on the left! ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/position-of-green-on-a-horizontal-stoplight/836722/11 "2019-07-09T03:01:54Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > I’ve never seen a horizontal light, but I guessed green on the right because that seemed right to me. You’ve never _seen_ one? Until I read the OP I assumed it was a hypothetical question. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2019, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/position-of-green-on-a-horizontal-stoplight/836722/12 "2019-07-09T21:57:42Z")
They’re green on the right in Alberta. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2019, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/position-of-green-on-a-horizontal-stoplight/836722/13 "2019-07-10T15:18:48Z")
Green on the right. I first became familiar with horizontal signals when I was little and my family would drive to Wisconsin from time to time (they are very common in Wisconsin). My mind was blown by the OP’s link where it says that the sequence is reversed in left-side-driving countries. I’ve only been to a left-side country one time (England in 2011), and I don’t recall seeing any horizontal signals during my stay there. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2019, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/position-of-green-on-a-horizontal-stoplight/836722/14 "2019-07-10T17:59:12Z")
From the [2009 MUTCD](https://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/pdfs/2009/part4.pdf) (which applies to the US only, admittedly), page 459 > [@](#): > > The relative positions of signal sections in a horizontally-arranged signal face, from left to right, shall be as follows: > CIRCULAR RED > Steady and/or flashing left-turn RED ARROW > Steady and/or flashing right-turn RED ARROW > CIRCULAR YELLOW > Steady left-turn YELLOW ARROW > Flashing left-turn YELLOW ARROW > Left-turn GREEN ARROW > CIRCULAR GREEN > Straight-through GREEN ARROW > Steady right-turn YELLOW ARROW > Flashing right-turn YELLOW ARROW > Right-turn GREEN ARROW Several such horizontal lights in my area, all comply with that ordering. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2019, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/position-of-green-on-a-horizontal-stoplight/836722/15 "2019-07-10T18:51:19Z")
I see quite a few every day ------- and I got it wrong. Shows how mundane things sometimes get confused in our brains. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2019, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/position-of-green-on-a-horizontal-stoplight/836722/16 "2019-07-10T22:18:45Z")
I always remember it as red comes first. First being how you read: top in a vertical sequence or left in a horizontal sequence. I never encountered them until the 70s in Milwaukee. I told this to my to-be brother-in-law who is red-green color blind and was then just getting his license. I’ve remembered it ever since.