A while ago, I was looking for something in Maine law regarding green arrows when I came across this section:
D. Red and yellow illuminated together, means the operator may not enter the intersection, as the intersection is reserved for the exclusive use of pedestrians. [PL 1993, c. 683, Pt. A, §2 (NEW); PL 1993, c. 683, Pt. B, §5 (AFF).]
For those who don't know what this part of Maine law is describing, the red+yellow phase was an older way of denoting an exclusive pedestrian phase, before pedestrian signals came to be ubiquitous. This phasing can be found on some older traffic signals/controllers in Massachusetts, like these ones in
Brockton,
Malden and
Wakefield. From what I'm told, this intersection in
Arlington used to have the red+yellow phase when it was initially installed (1970s or older?), until dedicated pedestrian signals were added a while ago. This red+yellow (or amber) phase should not be confused with a completely different sequence used in some European countries, denoting the signal is about to change to green.
My question is, given this part of Maine law, was this red/yellow exclusive pedestrian phasing ever used outside of Massachusetts? I'm especially curious about if Maine (or other New England states) ever used this phasing ever since that red+yellow phase is specifically written into Maine law...