Traffic Signal Madness

Traffic signals are some of the most reliably consistent devices on the planet.  If you drive the same route every day, it's easy to get a feel for durations, patterns, and the proper routes. And of course the great thing about traffic signals is that they always change from green, to yellow, and then to red.

Except, that is, when they don't.

The main path from my work is a street that condenses down from a 6 lane thoroughfare to a 2 lane residential road.  Intersecting this road is another main traffic artery on which I travel the final leg of my journey home.  On Friday I sat at this intersection waiting to turn left.  The traffic in the perpendicular direction came to a stop, and the protected left turn arrow turned green. The two cars in front of me went through the intersection, and then the light turned red.

Not yellow; red.

I slammed on my brakes to avoid entering the intersection, and tried to figure out what had just happened. I looked both directions to see if an emergency vehicle had triggered the abrupt change, but saw nothing. Traffic in all directions was stopped.  After an unusually long period of time, the light turned green for the remainder of the traffic on the street.  I made my left turn after yielding to oncoming traffic, and continued perplexedly along my way.

It took me a few minutes, but I finally realized why the change from green to red was so abrupt.  In actuality, I had been given a yellow turn arrow, but that bulb was broken. Since the solid lights are always red when the turn signals are active, it appeared in my mind as though the signal had gone straight from green arrow to red.  I suppose I did the right thing in making the abrupt stop because technically I had a red light, even though I was supposed to have a yellow turn arrow to go along with it.