Andrew P Smith schrieb:
In Eastern Germany, at certain sets of lights, a sign exists permitting
you to turn right when the light is at red if the road is clear of other
traffic. Seems to work OK - it's a hang over from the days of Communist
East Germany.

If i may comment on this, in eastern germany this was a well-established
practice from quite long ago. The sign is called "gruener Pfeil" (green
arrow) and attached beneath the red light. The sign is not illuminated.
It was taken over by the west after the reunion. Here in Hamburg, a lot
of junctions now have a green arrow.

The learning curve was pretty low. There have been newspaper articles
saying what it is and how to use it. Its dead easy once you try it out.
I think the learning curve was so low because you can just ignore it!

How to use it:
a) if you don't want to use it, just ignore it.
b) Stop at the position where you would normally stop
c) Edge forward slowly until you can see if your route is clear of cars
and pedestrians (there is no all-pedestrian phase on german traffic
lights. Its done like an earlier post about France said, with priority
for pedestrians.)
d) off you go.

I love it.

PS On crossing the road in different countries: (Exagerated)
I was in Poland a few days ago. I had to re-learn how to cross a road...
It seems to me that polish drivers drive like hell...
What i figured out was this:
a) Watch if road is clear, but assume a higher vehicle speed that at home
b) if road is clear, be sure and watch again. cross.
c) Some roads never get clear. Wait for a small gap in traffic and just
hop onto the street.
d) dont watch cars approaching as you will be scared to death
e) cross
f) turn back to watch cars that stopped for you.
Judging by how the Polish do it this seems to be the way of crossing a road.
A Zebra Strip in Poland is just an indication of "Here might be a spot
suitable to cross the road" where in germany it says "Here pedestrians
have priority", making my learning even harder...