Why are the flashing lights yellow and not red?
A flashing yellow light means “warning.” A flashing red light means “stop your vehicle.” State law requires that vehicles yield to pedestrians, and it requires that pedestrians give vehicles the opportunity to do so before entering the crosswalk. Flashing yellow lights do not change or augment these legal requirements. A flashing red light would change this by legally requiring motorists to stop, whether pedestrians were present or not. In addition, it would not be appropriate to introduce a red light (and the legal requirement to stop at that red light) without any warning. That is why traffic signals have a short yellow light before the red light appears. If the city were to use red lights in this situation, it would require that there also be yellow warning lights prior to the red. Essentially, the device would become a traffic signal.
