Are you talking about the 2 lights on the bottom? Is that not common everywhere? The left one is probably a left arrow to indicate a protected left turn, and the right one is solid.
I don’t know if this is a US-only thing or all countries where they drive on the right side of the road but without the green left arrow, left turns on a solid green light are unprotected and must yield to oncoming traffic.
The arrow can also be flashing yellow on some intersections to indicate an unprotected left turn regardless of the state of the solid lights.
Similarly, a green right arrow can be present at solid red lights to indicate a protected right turn. Otherwise, you can still turn right on solid red (unless a sign explicitly prohibits it) but must yield. Right arrows are much less common than left.
I don’t remember ever seeing “combined lights” with single red or yellow lamps and multiple greens. Level crossings often have only red and yellow lights, missing green.
Traffic lights are positioned at the entrances to intersections, not the exits. They also come with backup signs (stop sign, yield sign, etc.) for when the lights are disabled or defective. Working traffic lights override these signs.
Solid green also means an unprotected left turn that must yield to oncoming traffic.
A green arrow traffic light can override a solid red to give you a protected turn. A green right arrow on a sign gives you an unprotected right turn on a red. Without this, you cannot turn right on a red.
Flashing yellow means ‘caution’ in general and is usually used on auxiliary lights to warn about crossing pedestrians after a turn, who have right of way. When the main traffic lights are flashing yellow, they’re disabled or defective.
I remember that the city I grew up in, long ago, used to disable many traffic lights at night. Their website claims that “due to the large number of visually impaired and blind citizens, the traffic lights at the most important traffic junctions are kept in operation at night”, so I guess this still continues. The village I’m living in these days has no traffic lights at all.
Are you talking about the 2 lights on the bottom? Is that not common everywhere? The left one is probably a left arrow to indicate a protected left turn, and the right one is solid.
I don’t know if this is a US-only thing or all countries where they drive on the right side of the road but without the green left arrow, left turns on a solid green light are unprotected and must yield to oncoming traffic.
The arrow can also be flashing yellow on some intersections to indicate an unprotected left turn regardless of the state of the solid lights.
Similarly, a green right arrow can be present at solid red lights to indicate a protected right turn. Otherwise, you can still turn right on solid red (unless a sign explicitly prohibits it) but must yield. Right arrows are much less common than left.
In Canada it’s always a stack of four lights.
Combining the red light is common in Australia but I don’t think the amber light is ever combined.
Example from image search:
I think it mostly looks odd to me because of how individual and free floating your lights appear
Yeah our lights come in all sorts of shapes. Might be more standardized over there
In Germany:
I don’t remember ever seeing “combined lights” with single red or yellow lamps and multiple greens. Level crossings often have only red and yellow lights, missing green.
Traffic lights are positioned at the entrances to intersections, not the exits. They also come with backup signs (stop sign, yield sign, etc.) for when the lights are disabled or defective. Working traffic lights override these signs.
Solid green also means an unprotected left turn that must yield to oncoming traffic.
A green arrow traffic light can override a solid red to give you a protected turn. A green right arrow on a sign gives you an unprotected right turn on a red. Without this, you cannot turn right on a red.
Flashing yellow means ‘caution’ in general and is usually used on auxiliary lights to warn about crossing pedestrians after a turn, who have right of way. When the main traffic lights are flashing yellow, they’re disabled or defective.
I remember that the city I grew up in, long ago, used to disable many traffic lights at night. Their website claims that “due to the large number of visually impaired and blind citizens, the traffic lights at the most important traffic junctions are kept in operation at night”, so I guess this still continues. The village I’m living in these days has no traffic lights at all.
As an Aussie it looks weird to me because we do six-aspect traffic lights that look like this:
https://youtu.be/Xz3dzC5NpME
Ah, yeah those lights are a lot more straightforward than ours lol