North American traffic light

A somewhat strange topic, recently I was discussing how traffic lights work here in Canada and started wondering how all of this works in other countries.

What really annoys me here is that on slippery winter roads the traffic light switches from green to yellow very quickly, and it’s often impossible to brake in time. In Russia, for example, this wasn’t a problem.

So here is my small research into a few countries.

As you can see in the photo, traffic lights in Canada usually look like this

Each light corresponds to a lane; if, like here, there are two, it means there are two lanes underneath - all logical.

This doesn’t always match perfectly, but in most cases it’s roughly like that.

There are also other variants, for example this one from the USA, vertical:

Also, for pedestrians on the right side of the photo you can notice a traffic light of this type

It works according to this principle:

1. White walking person you may cross

2. Red hand starts flashing with seconds, how much time is left until the end of the crossing

3. Solid red hand - crossing is not allowed

Often it turns on only by pressing a button, but sometimes it works without it as well, depending on how busy the crossing is.

There are crossings that work exclusively by button, and the rest of the time it’s always green for cars.

The main problem is that the traffic light works like this:

That is, when approaching an intersection the green light does not flash before turning yellow, it switches instantly. In summer this is less critical, since roads are mostly dry and the braking distance is short, but in winter the situation is completely different.

In this video nothing happened, because the speed was low:

But if you’re driving 50–60 km/h and encounter yellow, you have somewhere around 0.5–1 second to make a decision.

It’s especially critical when a pedestrian presses the button to cross and the traffic light triggers instantly. So annoying!

Of course this doesn’t happen everywhere, at many intersections, especially within the city, you can watch the pedestrian countdown timer, like in this video, which gives an idea of how much time is left:

On larger roads you can sometimes encounter a “traffic light before the traffic light” - a display located 200–300 meters before the main light, which turns on a bit earlier and warns about the red signal:

But there’s no universal lifehack, because the pedestrian “hand” does not always show seconds, as in this example:

As a result, you get a winter problem: if you try to brake, you might skid on a slippery road, and if you accelerate, you might hit someone or crash into someone, that’s the dilemma every time.

So what about other countries? Of course, where there is little snow and ice, this problem is less significant.

I started checking, for example, in France, Germany, and the Czech Republic it works the same way:

Or in Spain:

I kept looking in Eastern Europe, in Romania, it’s the same:

But in Estonia it’s different:

In Finland it’s again like in other Western countries:

I started suspecting that the green light flashes only in post-Soviet countries.

Because even in Hong Kong it’s the same:

Although there’s no clear logic. For example, Riga, Latvia:

And in neighboring Lithuania everything is classic again, with flashing:

And finally, Moscow - not only does the green light flash, but it also shows seconds. It seems this doesn’t exist anywhere else:

That’s how it is…