For drivers along Woodbourne Road on Tuesday afternoon and evening, there was a problem – one of the lights at the intersection with East Lincoln Highway displayed red, yellow, and green all at once.
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Drivers – some confused – stopped at the light as it flashed all the signals.
Assistant Middletown Township Manager Nick Valla said the problem was caused by a short in the traffic light wiring.
Once the township got wind of the malfunction, traffic signal maintenance contractor Armour and Sons Electric responded to look into the tri-colored light.
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“The malfunction was fixed last night and the signal is functioning,” Valla said.
The short was caused by normal wear and tear, the assistant township manager said.
The township will have the adaptive light timing on the signal reset soon to let the system “adjust timings based on the volume of traffic once again,” Valla said.
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PennDOT officials said an intersection with a non-functioning traffic signal should be treated as though it were a four-way stop.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, red on lights is used because it came to symbolize stop to horse-and-wagon riders who came up to an active train crossing in England.
As cars came onto the scene, red kerosene lanterns were used to mark dangerous obstructions in the road in the U.S. The first traffic signals for cars had red for stop and green for go.
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“By the time a third lens was added to traffic signals to denote the change interval, yellow had come to be associated with ‘caution’ via its use on warning signs,” according to federal literature from 1971 on the history of traffic signals.
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