661-Pete wrote:I also remember being taught, Green means "you may go if the way is clear" or some such wording. But we've all got so used to the idea that Green means GO, perhaps there are things we need to un-learn then?
I remember 'STOP' being on lights.
I'm not sure the colour blind thing has legs. Surely the one at the top is red and the one at the bottom green. Not sure how you can mix up top and bottom unless there's something seriously wrong with you!
At the end of the day you can't move forward if you don't have a clear road. I know folk these days seem to think that green means go but personally I find that attitude annoying. There's a junction I cycle through every night and watch the idiots getting wound up because their light is green and there's still traffic coming through (legitimately because it's all queued on the far side of the stop line waiting to turn and can't move until after the lights change and the oncoming traffic has stopped. Obviously our cyclist would have problems here too!).
Then there are emergency vehicles - might be one of them coming. The lorry in the above case may have even seen one in their rear view mirror and decided the best option was to keep going and follow the bike through. Perhaps he felt there was someone too close to his rear and to stop would risk a collision.
Obviously I'm not claiming any of these was the case but the cyclist couldn't possibly know what was going on. All he should care about is whether his route was clear and in this case it wasn't. I don't see why it needs to be more complex that that.
IMO it's just as well he didn't hurt himself more seriously because I wouldn't put this case in front of a jury and expect a payout.