Posted by Lucas Lincoln on Dec 14th 2016
Recently, a friend and I started talking about traffic lights. Yes, traffic lights. It was after a morning ride in the canyons that we just came about the subject. We both agreed, red means “stop”, green means “go,” and yellow means “hurry before it turns red” What neither one of us could figure out is why these three specific colors were picked. Why is it green and not orange? Why is it yellow and not blue? We talked about it over a few pints but didn’t really get anywhere...eventually the subject interested me enough to look into it…this is what I found.
Though I did not find a simple and quick answer, the colors do have some meaning. Way before there were cars and motorbikes, there were trains. And these trains needed traffic signals as well. These earlier traffic signals were only red and green, they were gas-powered, and a little dangerous in the event of a leak.
THE COLOR RED WAS INHERITED FROM THE RAILROAD DAYS
For just about any culture on the planet, the color red symbolizes danger, just not Carlos Danger. That makes sense right? A red traffic light means “Stop” because there is danger ahead if you choose to ignore it. In addition, the color red has the lowest wavelength of any color on the visible spectrum…which basically means that it can be seen from a greater distance when compared to others. Furthermore, as stated above, red has long been a traffic signal going back to the railroad days. Those are still around, right?
GREEN ORIGINALLY MEANT “CAUTION”
Over the days, the color green has actually meant different things. Compared to red, and yellow for that matter, green has the shortest wavelength of the three on the visible spectrum. This means that it is easier (brighter) to see than any other color except yellow and red. Back in the early days of trains, the green color actually meant “caution” not “all -clear”…the “all-clear” color….was….well…clear or white. Unfortunately this clear or white color ended up causing a lot of problems. You see, clear or white was easily confused with a star and many a train had disastrous accidents. Eventually, green replaced white and that’s what stayed the same for a while.
YELLOW MEANS “CAUTION” NOT “HURRY BEFORE IT TURNS RED”
Picture this…a stop sign that is NOT red, think yellow instead. Yes, many stop signs were yellow for many decades, even as recent as the 1940s. Though with the advancement of technology, in particular reflective technology, the yellow stop signs were evolved back into red but adopted into the traffic lights instead, leaving them as the “caution” color in the middle.
Though traffic signs and traffic lights are different from country to country, the general consensus is that these three colors are the same throughout the world. Though some states, and even municipalities, are slightly different in some cases, that is not the case when we’re talking in a general sens
