Longtime Washington Street jeweler sues rival for Horning in on its action

For many years Massachusetts had a special traffic signal indication: solid red and yellow lights on at the same time meant that all vehicular traffic should stop and pedestrians could cross. Since all the vehicles were stopped, no matter which way they were going, pedestrians could even cross diagonally if they wished. Those signals had no "Walk" or "Wait" lights. After displaying solid red and yellow together for a defined period -- the equivalent of "Walk" -- then the signals changed to solid red in all directions -- roughly the same as a flashing "Don't Walk".

A few signals were timed to display the solid red + yellow in every cycle, but most had a pushbutton to request the red + yellow walk signal. Those signals would let traffic on one street move, then cars on the other street, then stop all the cars so pedestrians could cross, then after that everything would repeat.

There was another variation at places where there was a midblock crosswalk activated by a pushbutton. The cars would get a FLASHING GREEN in normal circumstances. The flashing green was a signal that there was a pedestrian-activated crosswalk. When someone pushed the button, the signal would change to yellow, then to red + yellow so pedestrians could cross, then to solid red, and finally back to flashing green.

Often red and yellow bands were painted on the poles supporting the signals, as another sign that this was a special kind of signal.

As far as I know, these signals -- both the flashing green and the red + yellow -- were unique to Massachusetts, but everyone who learned to drive here knew what they meant.

Sometime around the late 1960s or early '70s the Federal government adopted the Uniform Manual of Traffic Control Devices, which outlawed both of these special signals, and they were gradually phased out.

I forget exactly where, but I recall seeing a surviving flashing green/red + yellow signal somewhere out in the exurbs within the past year or two.