Traffic Lights And Brain

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For over a year, walking around in Palo Alto, CA, I have noticed that there has been a change in how traffic lights work.  Generally, the signals for motor vehicles and pedestrians work in sync i.e. when light turns green, the walk sign comes on at the same time. Sometime ago, the "walk" sign for the pedestrians started coming up before the light turned green. .

Traffic light in Palo Alto


I wonder why the city would do that. Knowing Palo Alto, it must have something to do with pedestrian safety or priority.

While driving, I noticed that when the traffic light changes for the pedestrians to walk and the light for the cars remains red, my first reaction is to take the foot off the break. It takes a few microseconds to realize the light is still red. This might be dangerous for the drivers. 

Does the brain notice changes in the environment first before realizing what the change is? Or, is it just social conditioning that the brain is used to seeing a pattern (signs for cars and pedestrians in sync) and takes a while to get used to the new pattern (signs for cars and pedestrians are out of sync))? 



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