This crazy traffic light is a 14 "lanterns" (that's the official term) found in the Central Business District in Melbourne, Australia.
More traffic light shenanigans at Traffic Signals
Update 7/3/08 - Thanks to Neatorama reader Lindsey, we have a better pic of the monster traffic light:Lindsey said that the traffic light, which is located at a major intersection, is for cars, trams and bicycle lanes.
Comments (18)
The left and right arrows go green at the same time but the straight circle never goes green. This is because the part of Swanston St ahead is not designed to take a large amount of traffic. Taxis (and others familiar with the intersection) routinely ignore the red light and cross anyway.
It is quite common to see confused motorists opposite these lights waiting to go straight only to have 50 cars pile up behind them beeping them through a few sequences until they give up and turn left or right.
I know all of this as I used to attend RMIT university which is just around the corner from here.
Actually at this intersection (corner of La Trobe and Swanston St) the trams cannot turn, they do cross the intersecion from both directions though.
And yes it is a dangerous intersection, last week I saw a taxi driver run the red light there, I think he did it on purpose though...
http://www.artofthestate.co.uk/london_photos/Canary_Wharf_Traffic_Lights.htm
yeah that was the name of the place. I only ever went in there to Daimaru, so to my mind they were synonymous.
In short, this sounds like a tidy little basis for fiction, but maybe not so great otherwise.