Tom says: “What happened to Red, Yellow and Green?”
Isn’t it strange how in today’s English language, words today don’t mean what they did years ago?
Case in point — the colours red, yellow and green.
If you were around many years ago and learned to drive a car way back when, you came to learn that red meant “stop,” yellow meant “caution,” because what was once green was about to become red — and green meant “go.”
These colours in the form of stop lights came to be the number one traffic control device in the world.
You could be assured in those days if your light was green — it was safe to enter the intersection. The reason being — the guy coming at a ninety-degree angle to you had a red light and he was stopped.
He learned his light was about to become red because the yellow caution light had told him so.
Jump ahead fifty years.
In today’s English, green means go, yellow means speed up and red means ignore.
The sad part is — it’s no joke.
At one time, people used to be charged when they travelled through a red light — but no more.
Today, you can almost bet if your light is green and you’re travelling into an intersection, you’re taking your life into your own hands because the red light at the other corner has likely just been ignored by the guy who is supposed to stop.
Driving and paying attention to the rules of the road is not just a common sense way to protect yourself, it’s also very necessary in the preservation of the other guy.
Red should still mean stop, yellow should still mean caution and green should still mean go. Is there any chance all drivers can go back to the old meaning of what red, yellow and green should be?
My life may not mean a heck of a lot to you — but it sure means a hell of a lot to me!
I’m Tom Young.
October 4th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
As a pedestrian and transit rider I see all this happening as well. Many times I thought I was going to meet my maker as I crossed the street in a crosswalk with the walk light obviously on for me. Two other things amaze me as well. I came across an accident at the Mcallister Dr. and Westmoreland intersection. A car had hit a motorcyle in the lane as the driver turned left. Emergency crews were on scene and the ambulance and a police car were coming down Westmorland and all you could see were there emergency lights darting back and forth through the differnet lanes as people refused to slow down or pull over to let them by. The other thing that amazes me is the number of people who drive out in front of the bus or race it to get by putting many in danger in the process.