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indy_cision t1_iy3s06z wrote

And now for the missing info. The green is not green, it is a green/blue mix. This is so color blind people can see the difference, especially when driving in the dark (which all of the "green is at the top" people are ignoring - if you are driving at night and can only see the single light, the red and bluey green are still different)

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Kalel42 t1_iy3sko3 wrote

I'm colorblind and the green doesn't even look green to me. It's more like white to my eyes.

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Boy-from-the-dwarf t1_iy53nfx wrote

I, too, am colorblind. The new ones are definitely easier to see, but older lights suck. I legit couldn't tell the difference in color back in the 90s. Thankfully, those are few and far between now.

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2workigo t1_iy3y2z5 wrote

I obviously haven’t had enough coffee yet because I don’t understand this. The placement of the lights is standardized. The three different colors are illuminated. Green is on bottom. So at night (or really anytime), if the bottom light is glowing, you know it’s green.

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Antithesys t1_iy4aksf wrote

There are many environmental conditions, especially at night, where you see just a light and not the rest of the fixture, so if you don't know what color it is you can't determine if it's the top or bottom. It usually becomes apparent up close but until then you would need to guess whether you should be stopping or not, and we don't need people guessing on the road.

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2workigo t1_iy4d4t9 wrote

Well that’s scary. Thank you for this TIL!

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indy_cision t1_iy5rim2 wrote

When it is dark and you driving towards them and cannot see anything other than the one glowing light, how do you know if it is the top or bottom light that is lit if you are red/green colourblind?

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2workigo t1_iy5xuv4 wrote

Yep. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that. In my area the vast majority of traffic lights also seem to be surrounded by street lights so the entire stop light is illuminated at night. I was hypocaffeinated this morning, that’s my excuse. Thanks for replying, it makes sense!

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9600n81 t1_iy4aryb wrote

Red is at the top.

If you're close enough to a light that you have to obey it but can't distinguish the top from the bottom you've got bigger sight problems than colour blindness and probably shouldn't be driving at all.

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indy_cision t1_iy5ryy0 wrote

Spoken like someone who hasn't driven in poor visibility conditions or dark enough to not see anything other than a single glowing light...

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9600n81 t1_iy7hzqa wrote

Get an eye test or give up your licence.

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