Once upon a time, traffic lights were green and red. Then we threw in amber to give drivers a little time to react, and we called it good. Except, British Columbia couldn’t stop there. It wanted to mix things up! So it introduced the flashing green.
Don’t confuse this with the common flashing amber, either. That’s a signal typically used to indicate that a set of traffic lights are malfunctioning or otherwise not in operation. This is its own thing entirely.
The short explanation is that the flashing green still means go, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Let’s dive in to what it’s all about.
Pedestrian In Control
As explained by l0cal transport agency TranBC, the basic idea is that a flashing green light indicates an intersection is “pedestrian controlled.” That means that upon a pedestrian pressing the crossing button, the lights will change to stop traffic. Let’s hear it in the agencies own words, though.
A flashing green light on a traffic signal means the signal is pedestrian activated. So, when you approach a flashing green light, use caution, because the signal could be activated by a pedestrian at any time and you might have to stop and let the pedestrian to cross.
We’ve been using flashing green lights in BC since the 80s and they are usually found either mid-block in the city or at intersections on city roads and provincial highways,” says the agency.
If the light is flashing green, you’re still good to go. It’s just warning you that a pedestrian could theoretically press the button and then the lights would change. In this case, the lights will tend to go solid green, then amber, then red—just like a regular traffic light.
Drivers are just asked to take caution when seeing a flashing green because pedestrians might be in the area. You are expected to approach in such a manner that you’re ready to stop.
The specifics are explained in the Motor Vehicle Act of British Columbia, section 131.(5). The flashing green is used in multiple places, and this passage specifically refers to intersections and mid-block crossings that aren’t intersections:
When rapid intermittent flashes of green light are exhibited at an intersection or at a place other than an intersection by a traffic control signal,
(a)the driver of a vehicle approaching the intersection or signal and facing the signal must cause it to approach the intersection or signal in such a manner that the driver is able to cause the vehicle to stop before reaching the signal or any crosswalk in the vicinity of the signal if a stop should become necessary, and must yield the right of way to pedestrians lawfully in a crosswalk in the vicinity of the signal or in the intersection, and
(b)a pedestrian may proceed across the roadway with caution and at an intersection only in a marked or unmarked crosswalk.
That seems to suggest that drivers must expect pedestrians to randomly wander out during a flashing green. However, the pedestrian is also required to press the crossing button to turn the signals red anyway, and they’re supposed to wait for the WALK signal, too. Given those are the rules, it’s hard to see the need for the flashing green.
Are you confused? That’s fair. The flashing green still means go. It’s just telling you something you don’t really need to know—that a pedestrian might cause the lights to change, as opposed to a simple time cycle or whatever. If you see a flashing green, just go steady and watch for hazards.
Don’t Worry, It Gets More Complicated
So, there’s one place in the world with flashing greens. They’re a bit weird, but if you treat them like normal greens, you’re fine. But.. what’s this I’m hearing? Oh. In other places, they use flashing greens that mean something totally different.
In most of the rest of Canada, the flashing green is called an “Advanced Green.” This terminology is used across Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and several other provinces. In this case, the flashing green means that you are allowed to turn left across traffic without having to worry about oncoming vehicles. You don’t need to yield.
This signal was apparently invented because Canada used to use arrow lights differently. Green arrows were originally used to indicate that traffic must turn. The Advanced Green was also a simple way to add a “left turns allowed” signal that didn’t require adding an additional green arrow bulb to an existing three-bulb signal.
If you’re reading this as an American, and you’re getting angry, that’s okay. You have every right. Flashing greens fly in the face of the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals, as well as the US 2009 Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD).
Meanwhile, in Europe, there’s a further twist on the theme. As explained by Stadt Wien, in Austria, as the green phase comes to an end, the green light may flash four times to indicate the impending amber. It’s like an amber before the amber, as if any of us needed such a thing. Croatia and Estonia have used the same signal at times. Somewhat ironically, this too breaches the Vienna Convention, but Austria seems not to mind.
I Don’t Approve
It’s not often that I come out with a hot opinion in an explainer article like this, but I’m afraid British Columbia has me steamed. It created a confusing flashing traffic light that nobody else uses! And funnily enough, it’s completely useless! Traffic lights already tell drivers when to go and when to stop!
The whole flashing idea is just patently ludicrous. The flashing helps draw driver attention, sure. But when the lights are flashing, it’s to indicate that the intersection is still essentially safe to pass. So why flash?!
Besides, every other jurisdiction in the world handles pedestrian-controlled lights without this nonsense. Do you know what happens when a pedestrian hits the cross button? The lights turn yellow, then red, and the cars stop! Magic! No flashing required!
This goes for all the other weird flashy greens out there. There’s no need to break convention. The regular three-bulb layout works, and you throw arrows on as needed. Adding in the flashes just makes it all confusing.
In any case, if you’re driving in a new place, and you see a flashing green, try not to panic. Generally, in most areas, not knowing what they mean won’t get you into too much trouble out on the road. Still, they can be a confronting and mystifying sight if you come across them out of the blue. Or flashing green, for that matter.
Image credits: City of Vienna, BC Driving Blog via YouTube screenshot, ICBC, Lewin Day, US DOT
I live in Ontario, when I drove in BC for the first time I almost got T boned.
First of all I love you Lewin and keep up the good work but please just fuck off from our Austrian flashing green lights. We love it and we are not going to give it up although some of our political figures try to get rid of them. You might think I have some emotional and traditional connection with our flashing greens but it’s quite the opposite. It’s a well thought through system which helps you a lot while driving. But to understand it fully you need to know one more little thing about our traffic light system. More than 50% of our traffic lights are equipped with a red light camera and sensors.(In the video that you posted you can see the sensor which a little white tube with a red light indicator that it’s on, above the lamp) Which means if you go through a yellow light which I think everyone does and you are out of luck and it changes to red meanwhile you are still in the crossing you are getting a hefty penalty which you have to pay in heavy euros and not some Australian play money. So the flashing green helps you to decide is it worth it to go through the crossing and not getting flashed by or I’m going to just slow the fuck down and maybe light a cigarette (it’s Austria we are all smoking here) and calm the fuck down and wait for the next green. It really helps and it takes around two lamps to get use to this system, because it makes a lot of sense. It’s not confusing and it helps us. So as I earlier said just fuck off and I love you!
Some BC background for you, Lewin:
Way back in the 1960s in BC, we once had “Retarded” greens. That’s right, Retarded! You had to wait for the green arrow to flash *after* oncoming traffic had their turn. However, in the late 1970s, “Retarded” became politically incorrect, induced bales of laughter at every intersection, and our politicians had their work cut out. The now common advanced green quickly replaced the retarded one, but many intersections back then were controlled by a single flashing light hanging in the center utilizing red lenses in one direction and yellow lenses crosswise. They simply had to differentiate. They could not simply erect a three light stack at a crosswalk because the dotty aging British drivers that populate the “Land of the newly wed and nearly dead” might might assume it was a full-blown intersection and drive onto the sidewalk, then sue the city, so the flashing green was adopted. This may not be the actual truth but it’s how I saw it as a 10 year old.
Yeah, it’s completely pointless but I’m used to it since I’ve seen it most of my life and never once questioned it until now.
It was also a BIG SURPRISE to see two intersections that I cross multiple times a week (Saanich, BC) on my favorite auto site.
Oh, by the way, about a mile up that same street (Quadra & Lodge) there’s a pedestrian controlled crossing with no flashing green that utilizes flashing yellow markers embedded in the crosswalk that strobe when the button is pushed … so … 50 years have elapsed and BC politicians still haven’t made up their minds.
I noticed them when visiting Vancouver, BC in 1990 and couldn’t figure out what they intended. Then, I started driving between Dallas, TX and Vancouver, BC a several times in the 1990s. I asked some friendly Canadians about it: wistful thinking. Nobody could come up with any common explanation. So, I asked a friendly RCMP officer about it. Seeing my car with TEXAS numberplates, he asked me, “long way from home, aren’t you?” He explained that they were sort of bullshit and I shan’t worry about them, anyhow.
During the late 1970s and most of 1980s, Germany trialled the blue traffic signal next to the normal traffic signals at certain intersections that had a very long waiting time. When the blue signal is illuminated, the motorists were advised to shut off the motors and wait. This was supposedly to help reduce the smog and pollution from long wait times.
One important aspect of the BC’s flashing green that I don’t think was explicitly mentioned in the text or video is that, although the traffic light is pedestrian controlled, the cross traffic does not have a traffic light at all; it only has a stop sign, so that cross traffic is allowed to cross when they deem safe, after stopping. Therefore, a flashing green is actually sort of dangerous because, unlike a normal solid green, you need to be aware that a vehicle could cross the intersection at any time even though the light is (flashing) green for you. In fact, sometimes in heavier traffic, cars wait so long at their stop sign to cross that I’ve seen folks get out of their car to press the press the pedestrian button so that the direction with the traffic light can turn red and they may finally proceed through the intersection!
One year in my college town the Christmas lights they strung across the main street were red, yellow and green. That did not go well.
Yeah this really threw me last time I was in BC, and even when we looked it up it was-(as you’ve shown) hard to clearly illustrate what the purpose of it is, as it seems to be essentially redundant-as a driver I already know a light could turn yellow then red on me at any time.
And having different provinces have different meanings for the same light seems borderline dangerous-and while I don’t know much about what they’re might be fore a “provincial rights” a la “states rights” in the USA this seems like exactly why the federal gov’t sets things like this not individual states/provinces?
We have a dumb blinking left turn yellow arrow in my area, it will go from green to solid yellow to red, then will change to flashing yellow indicating that you can turn left if safe, but trouble is the people directly across the intersection have a green light to go straight. It’s been there a few years and I still find it needlessly confusing.
This is the sort of logic I’d expect in Quebec, not BC. In QC, signs tell you what you can do rather than what you can’t. So instead of a “No left turn” sign, you get a sign showing you can go straight or turn right. It takes an extra beat to figure it out, especially for us Ontarians. Pretty sure that’s why they do it that way.
Then there’s the island of Montreal, where you can’t turn right on a red light. Legend has it that it’s because they can’t trust Montreal drivers to look left and turn right at the same time.
Whatever the reason, it provides an endless source of wealth transfer from English-speaking Canadian drivers visiting Quebec and getting caught for traffic infractions.
Also my car got broken into last time I parked overnight in Old Montreal so I’m still a little salty about that!
Ontario reporting in: flashing green isn’t confusing, it just means you get to go first. I don’t know what BC is on about, that’s nonsense.
Hi — BC resident here. The flashing green lights are stupid. When you move to BC from another province/US state (I came from Washington), they ask you three questions from the driver’s manual – 2 are random and 1 is always about the flashing green lights.
The first time I was in Quebec and saw a flashing green light I was so confused coming from BC.
We don’t need any of the flashing lights.
Red = stop
Green = go
Amber = “we all know you’re going to gun it through the intersection even though you shouldn’t”
I kind of don’t mind the advanced green. There’s a light on my commute that has a green for only one of four directions, then for the opposite, but unless you know the intersection there’s no way you’d know that, and a newcomer turning left could waste precious time* waiting for oncoming traffic that actually still has a red.
*I’ve counted, it lets 8-10 through per two minute cycle, it’s not great, so anyone dilly-dallying really makes it frustrating.
Anyway, a flashing advanced green is great to reprogram existing lights without spending monkey on a whole extra light just for arrows.
New york city is even worse. There’s no right on red permitted UNLESS it’s indicated, which precisely the opposite of everywhere else, where you can go right on red unless there’s a “No right on red” sign. It’s one of the more stupid rule reversals I’ve seen. I’m sure a TON of people who aren’t from NYC do just what I did, and go right on red until they have a friend tell them not to, or they get a ticket. Why wouldn’t I? There’s no sign saying I couldn’t.
That’s the point. How else would they get your $$$?
Yeah that really threw me when I first moved to NYC years ago-but also gotta say it kind of makes sense as annoying as it is. Now live in Seattle and for similar pedestrian oriented reasons (that often make sense but sometimes don’t) they’ve been making more and more traffic lights no right on red.
I don’t have an issue with the rule, per se, just the fact that they didn’t tell anyone.
I swear I remember crossing into the city somewhere and seeing a sign-but not sure that was posted at every entry point and I agree it’s not obvious enough for something that’s in contradiction to the entire rest of the country
Most of the roads leading into NYC have used to have a sign letting you know there was no right on red city wide, but checking Street View of a few roads, it looks like they’ve replaced them with the 25 MPH city speed limit signs.
So, does the green light always flash at certain intersections where a lot of pedestrians cross or is there a sensor that activates the flashing green light when a pedestrian trips it?
I’m only asking because lately I have seen intersections where sensors automatically change the lights when a bicycle trips them.
It always flashes. Certain intersections are designated as “not enough traffic for a full signal but lots of pedestrians/cyclists cross here. You find them a lot on streets that are designated bike ways.
The wildest thing to me is that pressing the button does NOT always turn the light solid green and then go through the cycle – at a lot of intersections with a flashing green, the button doesn’t seem to have any effect and the light keeps flashing for another 30 seconds to a minute, then goes solid green and does the cycle. Makes it even more frustrating as a pedestrian – they’ve created a whole new type of light just for you and it doesn’t even work the way it ostensibly should!
This seems pointless to me but I’d gladly live with it if it meant there were more pedestrian crossings with lights in the Midwestern city that I live in.
Ready for more complication? This technically isn’t true.
For most provinces – definitely in Ontario – the left turn is neither legal, nor illegal. You are only allowed to proceed left when it’s safe to do so.
This means that if you get into an accident turning left on an advance green, you might still take fault in the accident.
Not in B.C. Rest of Canada? Yes.
I think it would only flash green if there were a red light for oncoming traffic.
This is true! Unfortunately, the red light doesn’t mean the left turner is protected from traffic.
B.C.’s flashing green lights are only at pedestrian-controlled crosswalks at locations where traffic lights are otherwise unexpected, like mid-block crosswalks. It makes a lot more traffic sense than a Michigan Left or the Hook Turn.
Nope. They are “mostly” at mid-block crosswalks. But I was raised in Alberta and moved to Vancouver, BC and have personal experience of turning left through flashing greens against oncoming traffic in Vancouver. Good times!
I don’t think that’s true – given the example video shows an intersection with flashing greens.
Plus, we have mid-block crosswalks where I come from and they work fine without flashing greens.
I like the first definition of a flashing green. I think it seems reasonable and would integrate well with peoples normal reactions and habits. However, there being more than one definition is practically anarchy.
The BC one for pedestrians isn’t so bad. The article doesn’t mention this but the left-turn advance blinking in Ontario isn’t quite the same as the BC one.
The BC one is a slow blink – the Ontario one is a rapid blink. I think the Ontario one is stupid – put in a green arrow so there is no doubt. The BC one is harmless. (Had this argument with Ontario people before)
Flashing green is much better than the stupid HAWK lights that Santa Clara, CA and other moronic cities are fond of.
The HAWK lights are also pedestrian controlled, but are normally dark and only have amber and red. They look like malfunctioning traffic signals and are training drivers to ignore dark traffic signals.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAWK_beacon
That is…. amazingly poor design….
That is shockingly complicated-which is never a plus in traffic signage. Why not just a red regular yellow then a red-then back off like a normal light SMH
I like the greens with a countdown clock – tells you how many seconds are left before the yellow comes. Seems the best solution!
Hmm. Here I was, believing that flashing greens were a common and normal thing. Well, they still are imo, if by that we mean having priority for safely turning left. It’s safe and works great, all while minimizing the space required on traffic lights. Now, that said, I’m in Québec, and I can’t vouch for BC’s tomfoolery regarding flashing greens.
Considering I live in a city with significant tourism, it’s good to know they likely don’t understand the blinking greens and it will allow me to remain calmer. Thank you The Autopian for helping me manage my future impatience.
While on the topic of flashing traffic lights, I remember in Switzerland, being impressed by a flashing white light just before red went to green, essentially making it a ‘get-yer-clutch-ready’ light. Very convenient, unfortunately less and less so.
Much of Europe does Red -> Amber and Red -> Green as the ‘get-yer-clutch-ready’ light.
It’s (unfortunately) already been 20 years, but I don’t recall that being the case in either Belgium or France?
I experienced it in Germany 10 years ago and was told it was a Europe thing. Haven’t driven elsewhere in Europe so dunno.
The United Kingdom does Red -> Red and Amber together (I was taught that this means Get Ready) -> Green -> Amber -> Red. In Belgium it’s Red -> Green (heaven help you if you stall at this point, you’ll get multi-honked at) -> Amber (accelerate to get past the darn light) -> Red (sigh and accept that you now have to wait). Same in France.
Here, it would be more of a put your phone away and get ready to pay attention again light
I use the countdown pedestrian light to decide when to put the car into gear if it’s visible.
Yes, of course. An actual countdown timer is awesome as it literally tells you how much time is left and allows for more liberties.
…Although sometimes the light stays red and the other direction get … a blinking green (full circle!)
They are just doing it to mess with the AI in your self-driving car.
This is sort of the opposite of the USA, where 90% of all pedestrian beg-buttons are placebos.
When I’ve seen flashing yellows, it’s typically very late at night at an intersection that uses normal red/yellow/green signals during the day; the crossing street will have flashing red meaning “treat this as a stop sign.”
I’m color blind and have to ask my passengers if that flashing light up ahead is yellow or red. They get real quiet after I ask lol.
You are aware that traffic light order is standardized for exactly this reason, right? You can tell the color of the light by its position even if you can’t see color at all.
I’m talking about the instances where it’s a single flashing light or late at night when it’s dark and you are far away enough to not be able to determine the order yet. The flashing reds are usually accompanied by stop signs so that’s another clue.
Ah, that’s fair then. The OP was talking about regular signals that change to flashing only late at night so I thought you were referring to those too.
A red/green color blind friend once told me that the lights here in Belgium have different intensities so you can make them out even from quite a distance when approaching them. Not sure if it’s the same in the rest of the world.