On Fri, 22 Jul 2005, Pooh Bear wrote:

> There is actually several seconds pause when all lights are red to allow
> the junction to clear in the UK.

In North America, clearance time (during which all traffic has a red
light) is an optional and variable traffic light mode. Colorado has had
clearance time built into all intersections for at least two and a half
decades. I learned to drive there and did so for many years. When I moved
to Oregon, it was a real shock to discover that there's no such clearance
time there. Ditto many intersections in Michigan, and many in Ontario.

Relatively long yellows and a few seconds' clearance time are known and
robustly shown to cut red-light running and related injury, death and
property damage dramatically, usually down to negligible levels. That we
mess around with any other "countermeasure" is telling and sad.