New York traffic lights history - green meant stop!
“Thousands of people who travel in the subways or on the suburban railroads know that green means go, orange means caution and red means stop. Notwithstanding this fact, our signal system provides an orange signal for go, a green signal really for stop, for it is only flashed in the direction of the traffic which is moving and not in the direction of the traffic that is moving in right angles, and a red signal which may mean stop, but is actually taken as a ‘getaway’ signal.
https://stuffnobodycaresabout.com/2012/06/27/old-new-york-in-photos-19/
