Sunday, September 6, 2009

Traffic Signal Broken for 30 Years

Okay, so Samoa is due to change the direction of its traffic tomorrow (we'll see how that goes), and we have the  Parisian suburbs pointing one-way streets at each other, so this time we go to Japan, where we find a completely different attitude.

Police were investigating an accident in the Fukushima Prefecture where (not surprisingly) both drivers claimed to have a green light. It turns out that the drivers were both correct. The light was green in both directions for about 7 seconds at a time. This problem is due to a programming error that has been in place for 30 years. During that time there have been no other reported accidents, and no one has complained about the issue.

Sources:
Dialy Yomiuri (the link appears to be broken, but my Japanese is kind of weak) (via Seven Days)
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