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A malfunctioning traffic light is, legally, a stop sign. Just in case anyone in here doesn't know that because holy SHIT is that an annoying gap in people's driving knowledge.
Recently, for weeks, near me there was a perfectly functioning traffic light with a temporary stop sign attached to the pole, as if the light wasn't working. I'll admit I don't know the by the book answer to that. but every other driver was ignoring the sign and going by the light so I went with that.
They left the stop sign up when they added the new traffic light at the South Philly Columbus Ave entrance to 95 SB behind the wawa. It's still there weeks later.
I wish I was taught this. Unfortunately, no one has ever mentioned a malfunctioning traffic light, as if it’s never happened lol!
an annoying gap in people's driving knowledge
It's not a gap in driving knowledge. It's lack of general common sense and general inability to reason logically. It's what is colloquially called being stupid.
A normal brain in cases like these defaults to the safe option. Without having to remember what the drivers manual says.
I would estimate that about 20% of the population knows this. Meanwhile 40% treat it like a green light, and the other 40% just sit there helplessly.
There’s an intersection in (or near) Mt Airy that will sometimes be blinking yellow in one direction and red in the other. For some ungodly reason people will treat the direction with the blinking yellow light as a stop sign and I don’t understand
Those same people also treat yield signs like stop signs. Unless it's a "Yield to pedestrians" sign, then they all become F1 drivers.