traffic lights

I used to believe that the Queen had a giant red button on her throne which she would press to make all the traffic lights in England change colour.

Anon

When I was younger, I thought there was some guy who's only job was to sit in a little booth by a streetlight and press the buttons that made it turn green, yellow, and red. I would always look for the booth and even though I never found it, I still held fast to this belief. I still remember the day when my preschool teacher burst my bubble when she asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I said, "A stoplight changer."

Erika

my parents had us all believe that in order to change the traffic lights from red to green, we had to blow at them really hard and they would change. i have also instilled this into my kids , i find it sweet that they work so hard to keep our journey going - lets hope they aren't naughty like me though and blow them again when were through so that all the other cars are stuck there lol !

fairy

I used to imagine that there was a room somewhere in the city I grew up in that had a huge map on the wall showing all the traffic lights, that each light had 3 buttons (red, yellow, green, of course) next to it, and that a man (ONE man) pushed the buttons at the right times to make the lights change.

Anon

When I was a little girl, my mind was extremely confused with the system of traffic lights. Sitting at the back of our car and waiting for the green to move, I was constantly wondering how on earth those drivers were so sure about the fact that the light happened to turn to red on our side and how they managed to halt just before we passed across the road. This seemed something unbelievably hard to grasp until I got an explanation from my dad at the age of five. ...

Tess

when i was little i used to think that the yellow light would come after the green light and that it was a signal to tell drives to get ready to accelerate

ready set go!

i used to believe that there were little people working the trafic lights, and i thought that the speakers on the tv were mikes to talk to the people on the tv!! wow! i can't believe that i thought that! my mom and dad had a good time laughing at me tho.

Hannah

When I was little I believed that some teenager would change the trafic lights while reader comic books.

Anon

When I was six I used to believe that if you smiled at traffic lights they'd think you were nice and let you through so I always ended up telling mum and dad to smile when we stopped at one.

Anon

When I was little I used to believe they used midgets to put them in traffic lights and they would take a flashlight and make the different colors shine and the double lights that are bigger were used when they ran out of little people and bigger people would work them. They had to be really smart to know when to change the lights and they would look out through little peep holes around the light

Kori

My mom used to tell me about the lights. Red means stop, green means go, and yellow means drive really fast!

NDH

I used to say thank-you to all red lights when they changed to green. My parents let me believe this until I started taking driving lessons!

Anon

When I was a little kid (like 3 or 4) I thought the green arrow pointing forward on a stoplight meant for the car to flyup into the sky.

Caitlin

I used to think traffic lights were controlled by a man in a tower pressing red, yellow and green buttons to make the lights change...

Anon

I can't even tell you where I got this from..When I was about 5 0r 6 I had this strange belief that a yellow light meant turn. Whenever I was in the car with someone and the light turned yellow, I insisted that the driver had to turn. Oh, the mind of a 5 year old.

Danielle

When I was young I used to believe that "traffic light changer" was an actual occupation, and it involved sitting in a little office underground at an intersection, with something like a submarine telescope which stuck out of the ground above you so you could watch the traffic and know when to switch the light from red to green.
A few years went by, and I explained my theory to my dad, who then proceeded to enlighten me, that they actually worked by laser beams that shoot lasers down the road that count how many cars are there wating, so they know how long to hold the lights for.
Thanks dad.

Courtney

Whenever my family took a drive, I always wondered how the traffic lights knew what to do. My theory was that a man with a huge control panel was hisdden in the bushes watching and pushing just the right buttons. =)

Ciarlene

I think they have these all over the world, but here in Britain we have a crossing light system with a red man standing still, and a green man walking. As a child, I believed when i turned my back, the little red and green men would begin to fight each other for supremacy over the crossing lights. I have no idea why.

Bruno

When I was young I used to believe that "traffic light changer" was an actual occupation, and it involved sitting in a little office underground at an intersection, with something like a submarine telescope which stuck out of the ground above you so you could watch the traffic and know when to switch the light from red to green.

Anon