When I was 2 or 3 my dad taught me "green means go, red means stop, and yellow means STEP ON IT!!!" For years I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to step on. It finally dawned on me when I was learning to drive that I was supposed to "step on" the gas.

Joy

I think they have these all over the world, but here in Britain we have a crossing light system with a red man standing still, and a green man walking. As a child, I believed when i turned my back, the little red and green men would begin to fight each other for supremacy over the crossing lights. I have no idea why.

Bruno

I used to believe that while on holiday in Spain, i had seen the red and green man at a pedestrian crossing fight each other, and would tell people about this whenever the thought entered my head until i was about 5. That was only because i again saw whatever film that scene appeared in (i think Superman 1 or 2), and realised my utter stupidity.

Gary Mckenna

My sister is 10 years younger so she was 6 when I started driving, and everytime I was at an intersection with lights and turning, she would start getting upset because I was going through a red light. Thing is I wasn't going through a red light, except that when we were turning she would see the red light for the traffic going the opposite direction and think I was not obeying ALL of the lights.

Anon

This is my dad's explanation to me and my sisters when we were young as to why people stopped their cars at traffic lights: drivers like the sight of the red traffic lights so much that they stop their cars and look at them. They dislike looking at the green lights so much that when the light changes from red to green, they simply drive away.

Larry

One day at age 17 I was riding in my boyfriend's car (also 17 at the time) in his neighborhood. We came to a red light on a main road that had a bright blinking white flash, and since there were none of those in my neighborhood, I asked him what it meant. He told me, "It's for the blind people who drive." I informed him that blind people don't drive, and he was startled at this burst of logic. His father had told him this story years earlier, and he had never thought to question it.

NikkNap

I thought that the "don't walk" sign at crosswalks meant to run across the street as quickly as possible!

richard

When I was a kid I thought that when a traffic light gave the signal "don't walk" it meant you ran!! How dum is that?

Anon

WHen I was a lil kid I used to always look up and see pigeons like on the traffic light post like when we were stopepd at a red light, and I thought that the pigeons follow the traffic lights laws also, lol

Anon

I used to believe that when we drove through the rain at night, a monster would climb on top of our car. And when we stopped at a red-light, he would get ready to attack, and only green-lights saved us. I got really nervous when I saw yellow-lights, because I knew it was about to turn red. It never occured to me that someone would of course see a big, harry monster riding on the hood of our car and call the cops.

Michele

I used to believe that the yellow light in traffic-lights meant Go Faster!

M. L. E.

I used to believe that traffic lights in certain parts of the world had giant blades that would drop down if your car went through them after you were red. As kids we thought it was the coolest thing to imagine a red light runners car being chopped in half... Imagine if this was a law!

Jordan Moline

I used to believe that when i pushed the button to be given permission to WALK across the street that there was a little man under the road, and when i pushed the button he got electrocuted, so the more i pushed it, the quicker i got to walk.,

Mychal

i used to belive that traffic lights were my friends, and i (no one else) could talk to them, and tell them when they could turn green, and red... there was one i used to like im particular who i always talked toooo... :( but then we moved away

shell

I used to think I could change traffic lights to green.
If I knew we were in a hurry to get somewhere I would talk to the
traffic light under my breath and promise it lots of new wires if
it changed to green , and it would a lot of the time.
It was sort of cruel of me to lie to them.lol.

Anon

I used to think that police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances would have a button in their cars that when they came to a red light, they could push it and it would make the light turn green and everbody elses would turn red.

Anon

When I was six I used to believe that if you smiled at traffic lights they'd think you were nice and let you through so I always ended up telling mum and dad to smile when we stopped at one.

Anon

My father is a terrible practical joker. He inflicted his sense of humour on all 4 of his children, and, unfortunately, now on my nieces and nephews too. Amongst the things that I believed were:
That dad was a god, with magic powers. He could change traffic lights from red to green, by commanding "lights please change". Miraculously, the lights would change colour - it wasn't until i was about nine that i realised that dad was watching for the lights in the other direction to turn before his command!
He also told me that the giant bales of hay in farmers paddocks were in fact 'wild hay', a type of very shy animal that would move only when no-one was looking at it. Occasionally they were covered in a tarpolen, because they were prone to catch colds, and the farmers were worried about them. I suppose its not that unusual for a city kid like myself to believe this, but unfortunately my older sisters kids - born and bred in the country - believe this as well!
Unfortunately, my father's jokes appear to be genetic - last week i convinced my three year old niece that bread grows on trees. We spent nearly an hour hunting around the backyard for bread to have with dinner. Amazingly, we found a french stick and two rolls - that i had hidden earlier.

Rebecca H.

I was thoroughly convinced as a child that my father could make lights change, and that occasionally, he could endow me with this ability.

We'd be at a light, and finally, he'd say, "Change, light!" and it would! Occasionally, he'd tell me to yell "CHANGE!" and it would.

Funny how I never put together that he was just watching the opposing lights to see when they went yellow. :)

Gary

I used to believe that there were green, yellow and red fairies that would stick their really big bellies into the traffic to make them change colors. The green one was the nice one that let the cars go; the yellow one was always in a hurry and so could only do her job quickly, and the red one was nasty, thus slow traffic. My mother says she used to say 'Come on traffic light fairies, make the light turn green!' when I was in the car, so that's probably where I got this theory from.

Sara