traffic lights

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

richard

When I was little I used to think that traffic lights where like periscopes on submarines. I thought there were people down the bottom of the pole who looked out of the lights and knew wen to change them!

Rebekah

I used to believe that God controlled the traffic lights. He would decide when it was everybody's turn to go.

Amanda

I use to believe that traffic lights were operated by like oompa-loompa people under the ground and there were cameras placed all around the intersection so thast when there was too many cars in a lane, they would switch the lights.

Kelly

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

My friend used to believe that the lights that tell you when to cross the road were real people that were just really little and were employed to paint themselves red or green, dependng on whether they were "safe to cross" or "don't cross" and then appear when they were needed.

Sue Ridge

I used to believe that there were people or something under the traffic lights waiting to switch them back to don't walk. How else did they switch back when people stopped walking over. I couldn't see what ever it was, so presumed they were UNDERGROUND, so whenever I crossed a road i used to tap dance and stamp so they wouldn't switch before i crossed.

Adam

i used to think traffic lights were controlled by a whole team of specialists in a nasa-like building, pressing buttons to make the lights red and green

none

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

When i was about 5 i was driving in the car w/ my mom and dad and i we came to a stop light and there was the green light and it was the arow pointing up and i said "mom does that arow pointing up mean where goin to heaven" and my mom and dad started laughing and they said "no that means where going straight" i didnt believe them untill i was about 8

XoXo -Hippie-

The UK has box junctions (I don't know whether other countries have them) at some traffic light controlled junctions. You are not allowed to stop in the box when traffic from the ahead is queuing back to the junction. I thought that the yellow box held a load of glue and you could only avoid getting the car tyres/tires stuck on the box if you were driving fast enough across the junction!

crobzub

when i was young i always thought that traffic lights were big lolly pops that changed colour

rudiger2

When I was little my mom used to tell me that the traffic lights had computers in them. I would imagine little mice coming to work each morning to work these big computers. Kind of like the ones on Star Treck.

Nadia

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

As a child, I could never figure out how the traffic signals knew when to change from green to yellow to red and back to green. After much puzzling over this mystery, I decided that there must be a person in the sewers at each intersection who would flip a switch whenever it was time for the light to change. I couldn't imagine why anyone would want such a job!

ZiZak

i use to think that in order to cross the street in a car that you had to push the pedestrian crossing button. I also used to the think that the blue reflectors on the streets were lights and i always wondered who turned them on every night.

c

i used to think that tiny little white mice with microphones and a huge desk covered in buttons controlled the streetlights, i could always picture them screaming to one another what button to press.

MiceMaybe