Traffic Light

Consider for a moment, the traffic light.

This seemingly unobtrusive object is, in my opinion, one of the best designed things around. Now, I'm not talking about the lights that tell you when to walk, stop or when to turn--I'm just talking about the tri-colored light that started it all.

There are three colors: Red, Yellow, Green

The colors are always presented in the same sequence: Red on top, then Yellow, Green on the bottom. Even if you are color blind, if you memorize where the light position is, you can still read it correctly.

When designers deviate from this basic design, that's when things get really interesting:

Clearly someone thought they were helping cyclists know when they could proceed through the intersection, but I'll be damned if I could figure it out... I think that it should be read across, rather than down (unlike traditional traffic lights). So, the bottom row reads something like "you, cyclist in my lane, you can go, but watch out for the triangle". Not sure what the triangle is for...the bar is pretty much the universal symbol for 'stop' or 'do not enter', so that would make sense that it appears on the same line as the red bicycle icons.

This is a picture I found (thanks Google!) of a great example of improper placement of traffic lights. Clearly, no one knows which lane corresponds to which traffic light. I can only imagine the traffic jams during rush hour... Perhaps they should hang the lights above each lane?