because I just realised that not everyone agrees with me...

[deird1]

Poll #4504 colour question

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 37

View Respondents

The middle traffic light. Is it:

View Answers

yellow
23 (62.2%)

orange
3 (8.1%)

amber
11 (29.7%)

something else
0 (0.0%)

Comments

[snickfic]

I suspect this is one of those cases where the common language obscures the fact. It doesn't look particularly yellow to me, but 'yellow light' is the term everyone uses for it, so.

(At first I was afraid this poll would require that I remember the placement of the colors on the traffic light. Which I probably could do, but would not be confident of...)

[deird1]

See, down here, I'm fairly sure "amber light" is what everyone calls it...

(So far the only responses apart from mine are by Americans. Once some Brits or other Aussies start answering, we'll see.)

[snowpuppies]

Huh. Interesting. Never heard it called "amber".

[deird1]

Interestingly, Wikipedia has "yellow" at the beginning of their traffic light article, but "amber" for the rest of it...

[kerri]

I've heard it referenced as an 'amber' light, but everyone here (Canada) calls it a yellow light. :P

[juliet316]

Don't know about everywhere else, but in my city the traffic lights are definitely bright yellow here.

[rebcake]

Yep, here on the Western Coast of the USA, they call them yellow lights, but if you actually look at the glass lenses up close, as I did at a recycled glass counter top factory, it does have an amber hue.

[beer_good_foamy]

Cooper on Twin Peaks talks about the beauty of small towns where "yellow lights mean slow down, not speed up." The beauty of that seals it. :-P

[speaker_to_customers]

I've never heard it called anything else. This is obviously one of those 'two nations divided by a common language' thing that doesn't crop up often enough to have registered on me previously.

[lirazel]

Huh. I voted amber because that's the way the color looks to me. But...it's called the yellow light here.

[gillo]

We're definitely trained to call it "amber" in Britain - Highway Code, driving instructors, police etc etc. It's an orangey-yeallow colour, but the function is definitely the amber light.

We stop at traffic lights, not stop lights. Do you?

[kirby1024]

Must be an outlier, because I'm definitely a "yellow light" Australian!

[lily_lovely]

Yellow light all the way, although it is admittedly amberish.

But it would just be weird to call it a fancy name when the others are just red and green. If they were scarlet and emerald, maybe I'd say amber. :)