The Red and Yellow Traffic Light that UK Does that America Needs to Start Doing

If you find yourself in London or one of the surrounding towns in the UK and look up at the traffic lights, you'll notice they're very similar to ours. They have the usual 3 lights. Red means stop, green means go, yellow means wait (even if you're late) and those lights operate the same there as they would here.

But there's one small feature that their traffic lights will do as well and that's show a red and yellow light at the same time.

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Red and Yellow Light at the Same Time

This was something that you can see in, not only London, but if you drive out to places like Bristol or even into Wales you'll also notice this.
Both in bigger cities and smaller towns, it seems to be something that many towns are doing and it's something that could work out well if the United States started doing this as well.

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What Does a Red and Yellow Light at the Same Time Mean?

Traffic lights in the UK work the same as it does here. The light is green which means you can drive through. After a while it turns to yellow signaling it's about to to turn red. Then it's red so let the cross-traffic go through.

Before it turns green, it shows the red light and the yellow light at the same time to signal that the light is about to turn green. It's only shown for a moment. About the same time or beat that the yellow is shown. This way, you'll know to hit the gas soon as it turns green and will already have the timing down so right when it's green, you can start going.

Another thing to note is that drivers just don't just speed through a yellow light or even after it's been red for a second as they're far safer drivers than in the United States. With their twisted roads, being these cities were built before cars were invited, it makes sense.