Teen drivers account for the largest segment of driving accidents. This may be due to inexperience, other occupants in the vehicle, radio volume, texting while driving, etc. This invention seeks to be more relevant to teen drivers and to engage them more in the actual driving part of the vehicular propelling experience.

Simply put, traffic lights will have emoticons installed over them. This could be simple blackout stickers, or for all LED lights, removing certain bulbs. The proposal goes like this:

Green lights (or whatever color is used for go) would sport the familiar smiley face, :)

Yellow lights (or whatever color is used for speed up) would be enhanced with a disapproving or sad face, such as :-/ or :(

Red lights (or whatever color is used to permit one or two more cars through the intersection) would give either angry eyes or a death face: >:( or X-P

These emoticons could be mounted either traditionally, or more naturally (i.e. turned 90deg clockwise) depending on the populace, intersection, or whim of the traffic engineer/installer.

An added benefit would be to inform the rest of the non-Pepsi generation about pop e-culture.

(Mind the list)
-- bdag, Sep 22 2009

Invented by the french. : ) http://www.flickr.c...6544@N00/1251401753
[2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 22 2009]

oh well if we're talking about pedestrian lights an_20animated_20green_20man
[po, Sep 24 2009]

Dagnabbit! Well, at least mine would be more official and less graffiti... and less French...
-- bdag, Sep 22 2009


[-] >_<
-- FlyingToaster, Sep 22 2009


Don't sweat it [bdag] I think somebody did that with felt marker. Your idea isn't baked.

Welcome.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 22 2009


[21 Quest], you bone me on account of my medium, not my offering?
-- bdag, Sep 23 2009


There was a great pedestrian signal in Camden once. The green man was wearing flares and the red man was smoking a pipe and wearing a rather natty hat.

[+]
-- wagster, Sep 23 2009


But why not update the green, yellow, red to more sophisticated signals, like Orange - SLOW DOWN or Purple, BE MORE AWARE OF OTHERS

no emots they suk

but color is very informative and could mean a good day for drivers when signals are clarified...not sure about color blindness....brings up this whole confusion about elder drivers, when is it right to take keys away.......

I like to drive around lights, cause I live in a rural area where I am often at a light all by myself, and I usually say a small thanks for that!
-- kikamca, Sep 23 2009


sp: suck. don't forget that if this world didn't suck, we'd all fall off.
-- po, Sep 24 2009


Don't worry about the neighborhood grouch, either. Several people have simply taken to ignoring his ideas altogether.
-- RayfordSteele, Sep 25 2009



random, halfbakery