Green Means Go, Red Means Stop, Yellow Means Go Very Fast!

Doesn’t anyone know how traffic lights work anymore? What is the deal?

Let me clear up any confusion that people might have. There are three lights on a traffic control signal. Sometimes they are vertical, sometimes horizontal, but they always have the same meanings.

The red light means stop. This means that you should not enter the intersection. There are exceptions to this, in some areas you are allowed to make a right hand turn on a red light. This also varies from intersection to intersection and state to state. Be sure you know the rules wherever you are, and read the signs. A stop is successfully executed when your vehicle is at zero velocity. You can tell this has happened by the fact that your vehicle is no longer moving forward. If you are experiencing any forward motion at all, you have not successfully executed a stop maneuver. If you find that you are moving forward, continue applying pressure to your brake pedal until you detect that you are no longer moving forward. I know this seems obvious, but the majority of people seem to have allot of trouble with it. You should remain in a stopped state until the traffic light turns green, at which time you can proceed into the intersection as soon as you’re sure the the knuckleheads on your left and right have successfully executed their stop maneuver.

Now, the green light. This light generally means it’s safe to cross the intersection. This does not mean that you should blindly rush into the intersection. You need to keep your eyes open for people that are unsure how to execute their stop maneuver from the left and right. This does not mean that you need to slow your forward velocity. It simply means that you have to be aware that the majority of drivers are very bad at successfully executing their stop maneuver, and they may still have some forward momentum as you approach the intersection.

Lastly, we will cover the yellow light. This one seems to give people the most trouble. The yellow light means a couple of things, which is probably the source of the confusion. When the light is yellow, if you are approaching the intersection you are not to enter it. Nor are you to slam on your brakes. If you have time to execute a safe and controlled stop maneuver you should execute one at this time. The reason you should not enter the intersection is the other meaning of the yellow light, and that is to clear the intersection if you are in it. The example would be if you are executing a left hand turn and you were waiting for traffic to allow you a gap large enough to proceed. The yellow light is your signal that it’s time to get going. May times you will find that your progression through the intersection is hampered by oncoming traffic that obviously does not know what a yellow light means. This is when you become aware that people seem to think that the yellow light means they should accelerate to whatever speed they can obtain before the light turns red. Although you know, after having read this, the proper meaning of the yellow light, the people approaching the intersection at ever increasing speeds may not have read this. Caution is the rule here, simply wait for them to pass and get out of the intersection. It is not acceptable to become stuck in the intersection. Backing your car up at this point is also unacceptable.

I hope that you have learned something from this. More importantly, you should practice every day.

To review:

Red = stop
Green = go
Yellow = stop if possible; clear the intersection if you are in it, do not enter the intersection.

So you have examples of good or bad intersection behavior? If you do, share and enjoy!

UPDATE: Seems that in Minnesota, it’s not illegal to enter the intersection on a yellow light. So it’s clear, yellow is for leaving the intersection, not entering it. Read the article here.

Share and Enjoy!