Crossing the Street in USA

Crossing the street might seem like something very intuitive in any country, particularly in one in which cars go on the same side as in your country of origin. 

In my own experience, this was not the case... and the cause was the traffic light for pedestrians.

I have seen traffic lights with timers before, but these ones work oppositely as I expected. 

The countdown in red numbers actually means that you can still cross for N seconds. 

In Europe the same countdown would mean that you cannot cross for another N seconds.

The red hand tells you to not cross, whereas in Europe the same message is transmitted through a standing man. 

The "green light" saying that it is OK to cross the street is actually white and is illustrated by a walking white man.

In Europe the walking man is green, hence the green light.

Quite interestingly, the traffic lights for cars are exactly the same as in Europe...