The accident you describe was clearly your fault. When one approaches a yellow light, one should stop (if one can stop safely) not “gun it” to try to blast through the intersection. Furthermore, a vehicle which is already in the intersection has the right of way. That is why people who KNOW how to turn left enter the intersection on a green light in the first place… to gain the right of way, so that they can complete their turn when the light turns red.

Perhaps you should reconsider. I’ve discussed this issue with two color-blind Texans. They can tell whether it’s the left or the right side that is lit, but when it’s late in the day and they’re a little tired, it’s hard to remember whether it’s red on left and green on right, or the other way around. Nobody confuses top and bottom, but confusing left and right is very common. For the sake of safety, you shouldn’t rely on a signal that 3 or 4 percent of the population cannot read and have to memorize.

Also, those lights are about 4 ft tall, so when you turn them horizontally, the structure holding them up doesn’t need to be as tall to maintain the same vertical clearance. Also, the area subjected to wind (in something like a hurricane) is less so they don’t have to be as stout either. It saves money.

You can’t change all the signals in a locale anyway because of driver expectancy… drivers expect the same thing to happen at all traffic lights (and in all traffic situations) every time. If you change all the traffic signals, people gun it when they see a green light even if the light isn’t green for their particular movement. It would cause all kinds of accidents.

Not all signals in Canada have the double red on one signal. In fact I think that’s only for Quebec.

My wife and I vacationed in Victoria and Vancouver, BC recently and the signals are just like the US except the 12″green and yellow with 18″ red are more common than the 18″ for all three. The only thing that got me about lights there were the flashing greens at pedestrian crosswalks; such as in front of schools. Oh and the green left turn arrow will also flash if it is going to become a regular left turn yield.

Thing is about driving in Vancouver is that there are very few devoted left turn lanes and most streets are rather narrow! The only time you see them are at the very big intersections in the suburbs. Otherwise, if you’re driving in the left lane on a regular street and don’t want to turn left, odds are you’ll get stuck behind someone who does.