Traffic question

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

What does a flashing green light mean?

I know what a flashing yellow, and a flashing red light mean. But on rt 16 Between Mass Ave and Broadway, there's this flashing green, and it confuses the heck out of me.

Anyone know it's purpose?

Comments

[geoffroi.livejournal.com]

a flashing green light indicates that the light is controlled by a pedestrian button and it might change to solid red.

[cos]

More generally, it's supposed to mean "unscheduled green" - same as a green light, but it's not cycling on a fixed schedule. It's "not in use" ... until it is. (practically, it's the same as normal green, of course)

[lerta.livejournal.com]

I'm not immediately being able to find a source for this. But, it means that it is safe to proceed, but that the signal may turn to red, without passing yellow, in an emergency where all traffic must stop ASAP. They're most often seen outside fire stations.

[lerta.livejournal.com]

Hm, the above is totally what I was taught in my MA-based driving school. *shrug* For a more autholitative reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unusual_uses_of_traffic_lights#Flashing_green_light

[lbmango.livejournal.com]

Excellent! thanks a lot.

Wait, Wikipedia is a authorative reference???

But it's good enough for me. Plus it agrees with Geoffroi...

[cos]

Huh, weird. They have the Massachusetts-only oddity of red+yellow (though they fail to note the most significant way it differs from plain red: drivers are not allowed to turn right on a red+yellow, regardless of signage), but they're lacking the somewhat more common use of flashing red to indicate "stop", like a stop sign.

[nowalmart.livejournal.com]

As an avid runner, I used that flashing light a lot. The previous poster is correct - it is controlled by a pedestrian button on each side.

This means that the light might go yellow -> red at any time (do not worry, there is a standard yellow light delay before it goes red).

That said I have seen NUMEROUS cars completely run it when it is red (and I am trying to cross the street, since the sidewalk on the south-east side ends).

[amethystmoon.livejournal.com]

As near as I can tell, that particular flashing green means "You will almost always be able to pass right on through as if there were no light here at all. Except when you can't." I feel like it would be safer to have it be a blinking yellow, at least more people seem to know what that means and may in fact proceed with caution.

[somertricky.livejournal.com]

One of the problems I've found with blinking yellow on pedestrian lights is that there's a perceptive or cognitive (or whatever) delay when the light switches from flashing to solid yellow. By the time you figured the yellow wasn't flashing anymore, the light would be red and often you'd have to slam on the brakes.

I liked the advice from the old "Boston Driver's Guide", which (tongue-in-cheek) suggested you didn't have to stop for anything that wasn't solid red.

[lizzielizzie.livejournal.com]

We have one such light in Lowell, and I am forever running it because I don't notice it has changed until it is red and someone is in the middle of the road. I'd much prefer a flashing green.

(edited to say "such", not "suck". Freudian slip, hehe.)

[aquaflame16.livejournal.com]

It happens that this was just addressed in this past Sunday's "Who Taught You To Drive?" Globe column, available here (http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/02/03/lines_lights_and_rule_breakers/).

Here is the meat of the answer:
"Flashing green is the same as a solid green. It means at that intersection, you have the right of way," he said. "I see them where there's a park, or where there's a school district. Where there may be heavy pedestrian traffic as opposed to vehicle traffic. It's a way to get people to slow down."

[aerynne.livejournal.com]

This is not true in Massachusetts, but in Canada a flashing green means the same thing as a green left-turn arrow does here.

[somer-villains.livejournal.com]

and here i was this whole time thinking the blinking green meant you had to stumble through the intersection.