One of the Enquiries.. :)

In traffic lights, why does Green means WALK and Red means STOP??

There are a number of reasons why GREEN means WALK and RED means STOP.

Edith and Earnest Bonhivert, in their book, Questions Children Ask (Chicago: Standard Educational Corporation, 1997) revealed that scientists say that red and green can be seen more clearly than other colours. This would be mmore clearly revealed through the history of railway lights and their relationship with mists and fog.

Moreover, usually, the red light contains some orange in its hue, and the green light contains some blue. This is to make things easier for and to provide some support for people with red-green colour blindness.

Another commonly known fact is that RED,being the colour of blood, generally signifies danger or hot. It also has often been the colour chosen when a need arose to attract attention, since RED is a colour believed to heighten nervous tension in people. Therefore, people would naturally pause or stop to think before going further when they see red light. GREEN, on the other hand, has a calming effect that would send a message that it is safe. The neutral effect it is believed to bring about would give off an “okay to proceed” signal to the people. So, natural reaction would be it is alright to go ahead or carry on.

In other words, colours do have an effect on how we feel and it has been used to send the right messages to people. Fire engines, for example, are RED and it tells us to keep away. Aeroplanes have red lights on the left wing, green on the right wing, and white lights on their tails. This show pilots where other aeroplanes are and which way they are going. It serves to alert other pilots.

Therefore, RED and GREEN are used in traffic light to indicate STOP and GO probably because the message they send correlates with the notion of danger and safety respectively..