In message , at
11:04:54 on Mon, 31 Oct 2011, Mortimer remarked:
Amber doesn't just mean stop, as if it did we would be the same as
everywhere else and go straight to green.

There is a fairly good case for us doing just that these days. The
red and amber sequence had some merit in the days when everyone put
the vehicle in neutral and applied the handbrake when stopped at
lights, but it it is increasingly irrelevant to modern driving and
removing it could reduce accidents caused by drivers starting off
before the green.

Do you mean that people are being taught nowadays *not* to put the car
into neutral and apply the handbrake whenever they are stationary? Or
is that just due to bad habits?

Automatic transmission is what makes the difference.
--
Roland Perry