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Picture 1: A red light means stop.
Picture 2: A green light means go.
Picture 3: A yellow light means slow down and be ready to stop.
Traffic lights (or traffic signals or stoplights) are lights used to control the movement of traffic. They are placed at road intersections and crossings.[1] The different colours of lights tell drivers what to do.
In South Africa, they call them robots.[2][3]
In Japan, the green light is also blue because ao in Japanese means green and blue.[4]
- ↑ "Frequently Asked Questions - Traffic Signals". FDOT. Retrieved 13 April 2021.
- ↑ "robot – definition of robot in English – Oxford Dictionaries". Oxford Dictionaries – English. Archived from the original on 14 August 2018.
- ↑ "see robot – definition of robot in Dictionary of South African English". Editor's Note: The origin of 'robot' used as 'traffic light' is from the English translation of the play R.U.R. by Karel Čapek which debuted in England in 1923 which introduced the term 'robot' to an English audience. For a short time in England it was fashionable to use 'robot' for 'traffic light' from the late 1920s, when traffic lights were being installed in England. This usage travelled to South Africa in the early 1930s, when they had their first traffic lights installed, and where it continues to be used almost 90 years later, while 'robot' for 'traffic light' fell out of usage in England. See Foster, B. 1970. The changing English language. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin.
- ↑ Backhaus, Peter (25 February 2013). "The Japanese traffic light blues: Stop on red, go on what?". The Japan Times. Retrieved 9 September 2024.