Liz Dobson: Green light for go, forget orange alert

Photo / NZME.

In Britain, an orange traffic light flashes just before the one below turns green, giving drivers a chance to get ready to put their foot on the accelerator and go.

When I originally saw it while in Northern Ireland a couple of weeks ago, I thought it was a brilliant idea, especially as it frustrates me when cars at the front of a queue can take so long moving on a green signal that the rest of us miss the light.

So I wondered if we needed a yellow 'get started' signal in New Zealand's traffic lights.

But after driving through England during test drives of the Opel products to come here under the Holden badge (see an upcoming Driven for my reviews) I've decided it would be a wrong move.

Kiwi drivers already go through red lights so the orange-before-green signal would mean early starts for bad drivers. And they'd probably collide with a red light runner!

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My theory was proven when stopped at traffic lights in Luton.

The light turned orange and as I engaged first gear in my manual test car, the VW Golf driver beside me had his handbrake off and was already moving into the intersection.

While Mr Golf was bad, the "winner" (or should that be loser) for bad driver was an Audi A1 owner in Paris who decided to park their car near the Champs-Elysees. It wasn't an official car park, instead it was the space just around a corner and before a pedestrian crossing.

The A1's curbside alloys were dent ridden, the roadside driver's door had a massive scrape and cars turning the corner had to swerve to avoid the car.

But it sat there for at least two hours in the nearly four-metre-long space.

New Zealand drivers, don't try this at home.

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