Doot. Lights are on.

Saw this article that I find to be a good idea... basically traffic lights that have a visible timer on so you know how long till the light turns green. The only concern that came to mind is that drivers will start gunning the gas right as the timer expires and they'll "charge" the green. This is bound to cause problems as there may still be people in the cross-traffic trying to race through before the red hits and often just running the red light. Unless they put a delay in, making both directions red simultaneously for a second or two to account for this, there's bound to be an accident.

In the US, the yellow signal light is used to warn that the red light is about to come on, but it is not used to warn when it is going to go back to green. I suspect they did this for the above reason, to introduce a reaction-time delay before getting moving. In Germany however, they use the yellow light to also warn when the light will turn green as well as red. A friend there said it allows the drivers to shift into gear and get ready to move. There are virtually no automatic transmission cars in Europe. I think fuel economy is the main reason.

I personally think a visible timer is a great idea. It would force some sense into some of those infuriationg lights on certain streets that we all know of that take an eternity to change. A visible timer would at least indicate that it's not broken.