A New Color Could Be Added To Illinois Traffic Lights

Traffic lights could get a bit more colorful.

I think we can all agree that people are really good at ignoring traffic lights. They run the light when it's red or they're too busy on their phones to move when it's green. Just go ahead and mentally prepare yourself for terrible drivers now before road trip season is upon us.

Now, researchers are suggesting a new traffic light color be thrown into the mix.

The new color is really reflective of current technology and it's sure to tick people off.

The New Color And It's Meaning

Traffic Technology Today says that researchers strongly support the idea of adding white traffic lights to traffic light signals. Now, it may not be white, just a very different color than the red, green, or yellow we're all familiar with and it could even depend on what state it's in.

The new traffic light color is meant to signify to humans when a self-driving car is at the intersection and let it control traffic flow. So if you see a white light, it's supposed to mean to just follow the car in front of you.

The white light concept is tied to the ability of the self-driving car to communicate with the computer controlling the traffic light.

Researchers did simulations of this and found that the main benefit were fewer delays at traffic lights but other traffic flow improvements were just marginal. White lights or AV (autonomous vehicle) lights aren't going to happen right now. But they could very well be coming later on down the road.