Hacker News Reader

Comment by omgwtfbyobbq | Hacker News Reader

They may just have problems with a specific frequency. I'm almost completely missing whatever frequency of green most traffic lights use, but I feel like I can differentiate between more than 10,000 different shades, although I certainly can't see nearly as much as someone with normal color vision can.

View on HN

I'm almost completely missing whatever frequency of green most traffic lights use

Fascinating. So you can't tell the difference between an illuminated and unilluminated green traffic lamp?

Can see it’s illuminated but can’t distinguish it from the bottom light (red). One learns the order of the lights… lighted on top? Go. Lighted on bottom? Stop.

Where do you live to have green light on top? I thought it was an international standard to always have red light on top, and this article claims the only exception exists in Syracuse, NY:

https://uncoveringnewyork.com/upside-down-traffic-light-syra...

Interesting. The linked article describes how Irish immigrants vandalized traffic lights until the city decided to hang them upside down. The reason for the destruction was that the Irish green was perceived as being below the British red.

They erected a statue of an Irish family near the last remaining traffic light that has it’s green lamp on top. The boy of the family sports a slingshot.

Train signals in the Netherlands also have red on the bottom. The reason is in case of snow falling on the light covers, the red light (most important signal, "stop") will never be blocked by snow.

Hmm... Looks like train signals (usually? always?) have colors in the opposite order indeed. Probably, parent comment did mean driving a train? ;)

They all look different, but the perception of what colors they are is different. That applies to other colors too.

Green looks like white, yellow looks like yellow, and red looks a little closer to orange than red.

This is an accurate description to me (also color blind) - white (with a slight green tint), yellow, and orange.

Apparently, walk signs (with the lit figure of a walking person) are in many areas white rather than green, but I see them as the same color as green traffic lights.

Related: whenever movies decide to make an actor into an alien/witch/monster by giving them green skin, I just see a guy with normal colored skin

I can see the difference in intensity, but green looks mostly white to me.

With enchroma sunglasses it looks a bit green, and with them at the right angle it looks mostly green, which I'm guessing is how most people see it.

Edit - There are some older styles of traffic lights where I can't easily see if green is lit when the sun is at a certain angle.

I try to avoid those during those times and/or use the behavior of other drivers to determine if it's lit. If the are no other drivers I slow down until I can see if it's lit.

Also, brake lights look a lot less intense to me, so I generally leave much more space between me and the vehicle in front.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com