Michael Anyone who has been to America knows that the traffic lights work differently there than in Germany: Firstly, there is no yellow phase for drivers when the light changes from red to green. It just goes "bam!" and this is probably due to the many cars with automatic transmissions: No one needs to engage a gear to start driving.

Before the traffic light switches back to red at the end of the green phase, there is, of course, a second of yellow so that you can brake in time. This is crucial: as soon as the light in one direction turns red, the one in the cross direction is already green! There is no grace period like in Germany -- if you try to rush through on red, it's not uncommon for the first vehicle coming from the side to crash into your side door.

However, Americans are notoriously bad drivers, and many of them talk on the phone, fiddle with the car radio, or drink coffee, and you often see completely absent-minded ghost drivers rushing through red lights. We've really gotten into the habit of driving off very cautiously when the light turns green and peeking into the side street to see if approaching cars are actually stopping.

The lack of a grace period also affects pedestrians: They have to be extremely careful to make it to the other side before the pedestrian light switches from "Walk" to "Stop" -- because then the cars immediately (!) get a green light. To give an approximate estimate on time remaining, an electric hand typically starts blinking at a point when a sporty runner can just barely make it to the other side. Older people usually stop then, while we young folks switch to 100-meter sprint mode.

Of course, the blinking doesn't always help, because each intersection has different settings. You have to rely on the traffic light technician who measured it at some point. That's why now there's something new now: traffic lights with large digital displays that count down the number of seconds until "Stop" appears. Brilliant!

Not only pedestrians love the new technology, but also drivers speeding by in the same direction, who can now peek over and read the exact number of seconds before their traffic light turns "yellow"! This often makes decisions easier, such as "Should I quickly change lanes to overtake the slowpoke in front of me, or can I still make it through behind them?" A year ago, these super traffic lights were only found sporadically at very large intersections in San Francisco, but now they are popping up everywhere, and everyone is thrilled. Bravo, San Francisco!

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• More topics you might be interested in:

  	California Gun Laws
  	California Governor Recall
  	Topprodukt
  	How much longer?
  	The Ailing Retirement System
  	The American School System
  	San Francisco Local: Subway to the Airport