I used to think that every traffic light was controlled by one person. I imagined a fat sweaty man in a small room underneath the traffic lights turning them to red and then to green.
When the traffic lights went out I assumed the fat sweaty man had quit.

stef

When I was about seven, I thought that cars should be equipped with very long, motorized periscopes. After going through a green light, the car would deploy the periscope and it would continuously extend behind the car, watching the light until it turned red. I guess my idea was that the car would stop for the red light, no matter how far it had traveled down the road. I'm not sure what that says about my seven-year-old desire to please the establishment.

Todd

Dad used to have me blow out the red lights. He would tell me when and sure enough - the light would turn green!

Lene

I believed that there were huge, invisible towers that people sat in and watched traffic lights and changed the signal when needed.

Anon

I used to believe... that my mom had the ability to make the traffic lights turn green. Only later did I find out about the three second delay, which she waited for before asking the lights to change.

Cynthia

i used to believe that red yellow and green meant "ready, set, Go!" on traffic lights..

cabagona

I used to think that the little video cameras at traffic lights were used to see when to change the lights, and there were a bunch of guys under ground who controlled the lights. I would say to myself, "Wow, they stay up really late!"

HannahJean

when i was little i used to think that the yellow light would come after the green light and that it was a signal to tell drives to get ready to accelerate

ready set go!

I used to imagine that there was a room somewhere in the city I grew up in that had a huge map on the wall showing all the traffic lights, that each light had 3 buttons (red, yellow, green, of course) next to it, and that a man (ONE man) pushed the buttons at the right times to make the lights change.

Anon

I used to believe that at every traffic intersection where there was a stoplight, that there was a man inside of the home or building on the corner who watched the traffic all day long. He would be the one to make the stoplights work.

Barbara G.

When i was young i would think that there were people underground that controlled the traffic lights. They'd use Cameras and Tv monitors to watch the cars from their cozy offices beneath the surface.

zeima.

I used to think that there were little men in control rooms underneath all the traffic lights changing the signals.

Ka

I used to believe that the cricket from disney's pinochio was inside the traffic lights pressing buttons. I also thought that the green straight-ahead arrow was telling people that they could go straight up rather than forward, and I always perplexed my mom by saying "you can't go up!" every time I saw one

dan b

My dad managed to convince me that he had some sort of special power that could make traffic lights change. I have no idea how he did it, but he always knew when it was about to go red or green when it was on amber.. he told me that it was something that all drivers knew... and the thing is, he wasn't wrong.. but I thought it was some sort of magic power that only drivers had...

Anon

It always amazed me when my grandfather and I would go for a drive. Each time we stopped at a red light he would say "presto chango" and the light would turn green. It only changed for me occationally when I did it. I never noticed him watching for the traffic lights from the other direction to turn yellow. Being the oldest off all the grandchildren, I was finally able to trick my cousins once I caught on to it.

Randi H.B.D.

My dad used to tell us that he could change the traffic light from red to green by blowing at it from his spot in the driver's seat. We believed it until we finally learned that he was watching the lights on the other side and could see when they were changing from green to yellow to red. He had really GREAT timing!

Anon

I used to believe that blind people could drive, because their dogs could bark at the traffic lights. I stopped thinking this when I found out that dogs were color blind, and couldn't tell one light from another...

Anon

When I was little, I was scared to go under traffic lights. I always thought the colors changed by insects changing them from a nearby bush or tree. I was always afraid that the bugs would change the green light to red while we were going under it to kill us, since we always step on them if we feel in danger. It was just about 2 years ago, when I was 10, I found out how they really changed- technology!!

rachael from nc

Whenever I was in the car with my aunt and there was a red light, we would always blow to make it turn green. the amazing thing is it worked..............

Caitlin

Sometimes I'd see an arrow-shaped green light, and the ones that pointed upward I thought existed to guide airplanes.

I assumed there was a runway somewhere near, and because I was at this particular intersection with airplane lights, I might get to see an airplane go right over my head at any moment!

Josh