I used to believe that at dusk someone would turn on a switch that would give traffic lights more power so the red, yellow and green could shine brighter, so drivers could see them better. After all, it was dark, and the lights looked brighter to me. Near sun-up, I believed that they would turn the power back down so the lights would not be as bright during daylight, because they didn't need to be.

And this was long before any energy crisis.

Vicki J.

I thought that when you crossed the road that you kept your arms in the same position as the green man. The same goes to the red man by standing with your arms to the side of you.

Helen

When I was like 2 or 3 my mom convinced me that if we tried hard ebough ... we could get the traffic light to turn green ... we did this by naming green things ...green grass green eyes green shirt green socks greaan umbrella and so on - lolz

Alanna

My sister and I used to believe that my Dad could correctly predict when the stop light would turn green. We would try to out guess him but always lose. It wasn't until I was about 7 that I realized that the stop light going the other way turned yellow right before our light turned green...

Ray

I used to believe my dad when he said he was psychic and could tell me the exact moment when the light was going to turn green. I would watch in amazement as the light would turn green right as dad would say "now". I thought he was magic.

Tonya

I thought that the red traffic lights were for Chinese people. It then was their turn to drive...

Joseffa Trip

Here's how I used to think how traffic lights worked:

There were these two people, a brown-eyed, brown-haired boy, and a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl lived underneath the ground. They controlled all of the traffic lights in the world, in this one little room that had wood all over the walls. They had a string for each of the lights, yellow, red, and green. When they wanted a certain one to work, they'd simply pull on the string. They even had a special string for when they got hungry, groceries would appear down a dumbwaiter. When someone pressed the WALK button, it would set off an alarm down where they lived, and they would have to pull a special lever to allow people to walk. And when they traffic lights weren't working, it meant that they had fallen asleep on the job.

Muff

My mum used to always tell me that I should stop at the traffic lights until I saw "the little green man come up". I was busily looking up and down the street for a little green alien type figure to wave me across the road, and of course he never appeared. But not wanting to seem stupid, I never mentioned to my mum that I couldn't see him, and just crossed the road when she did! I think I was about 8 before realising that the little green man actually appeared ON the traffic light!

Anon

i used to think there was a underground traffic light control unit. i always cursed the ppl working in there when the traffic lights stayed red for a long period of time.

oiman

When I was little I believed there was a little mustached man (not unlike Gomez from The Addam's Family) under the road that pulled a string to make the traffic lights change. I still think of that now, lol.

Chelsea Changa

i used to think that mice worked in the traffic lights and pushed the red, yellow, and green buttons all day when they felt like it. and that was why each light we had to wait at was either longer or shorter than the other one.

Amber

I used to believe that I could change street lights with my mind

Anon

For a very long time I believed that there were little men underground that changed the traffic lights!

Melissa

I used to belive there were people under the traffic lights, otherwise they wouldn't work...

Anon

I used to think that at each intersection with traffic lights, a little man would sit underground with video cameras. His job was to look to see who had been waiting the longest to see who would get the next green light.

Erica Brandt

When I was around 4 or 5, I thought that traffic lights were changed to red or green by policemen. I thought the policemen were right there at each intersection even though I never saw them - I figured they were just behind a tree or in the bushes or something.

When I saw a "No turn on red" sign, I thought that meant that the policeman working at that intersection was new and kept forgetting and leaving the green light on, so the sign was to remind him, "No, don't just leave the green light on, turn on red." Apparently they never forgot to turn on the green lights.

Anon

i used to believe that the green arrows on the traffic lights told you which way you had to go to get home.

Helen

I thought that underneath intersections there were big control rooms with lots of buttons and lots of men who spent their day randomly pushing buttons that controlled the traffic lights.

Anon

When I was young, we'd be sitting at a red light and after a while he'd say 3...2...1 and on 1 the light would turn green. I thought he was using magic, but really he was just counting down from the other light turning red (3 seconds between one light turning red and another turning green)

A Wild Cowgirl

When I was young I used to believe that "traffic light changer" was an actual occupation, and it involved sitting in a little office underground at an intersection, with something like a submarine telescope which stuck out of the ground above you so you could watch the traffic and know when to switch the light from red to green.
A few years went by, and I explained my theory to my dad, who then proceeded to enlighten me, that they actually worked by laser beams that shoot lasers down the road that count how many cars are there wating, so they know how long to hold the lights for.
Thanks dad.

Courtney