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The same character is used in Chinese where it also refers to bluish-green, tending closer to green than blue: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%9D%92 There is also a character for a much deeper blue: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E8%97%8D
If you're driving in Japan, you're likely to be eaten by a grue light. That said, we actually mix some blue into modern green lights, so that colorblind people can distinguish the two colors. In official CalTrans terminology, the yellow lights are called "amber lights" -- so we have our own weirdness in the U.S.
Reminds me of (grammatical) petrels:
https://www.kith.org/words/lists/petrels-list/
It's as if when modifiers and nouns sense they are dying in a language, they clutch on to one another for support, and eventually become like a single unit.
In short: Historically, blue and green were the same word. Green is now a separate word, but some green things are called "blue" including green traffic lights. Other "blue" things include apples and vegetables.
Another interesting things about Japan's traffic lights: as far as I can tell, they don't detect whether cars are waiting for the light. Last time I visited, I was waiting for ages for the light to change along with other cars, and light wouldn't change early even if there were no cars going through the intersection.
In short: Historically, blue and green were the same word. Green is now a separate word, but some green things are called "blue" including green traffic lights. Other "blue" things include apples and vegetables.
Traffic lights were introduced after the separation of color words and were originally called green light.
Another interesting things about Japan's traffic lights: as far as I can tell, they don't detect whether cars are waiting for the light. Last time I visited, I was waiting for ages for the light to change along with other cars, and light wouldn't change early even if there were no cars going through the intersection.
That's just fair - pedestrians aren't detected either
I read somewhere that the original green light was blue but green was easier to see at dawn or at dusk or at you or something so they switched
* The character for blue is simpler than the character for green, so it's easier for young school children to read safety text, if we call it blue (heard this from several people)
* "It IS blue" (not uncommon either)
* It used to be blue (apparently contradictred by TFA)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's just fair - pedestrians aren't detected either
If one set of people are waiting unnecessarily, we should make another set do so also?
We already prioritize cars enough, pedestrians usually have to press a button to trigger the crossing so they're always waiting but cars don't get punished for getting to the lights a second after the sequence starts.
Another interesting things about Japan's traffic lights: as far as I can tell, they don't detect whether cars are waiting for the light. Last time I visited, I was waiting for ages for the light to change along with other cars, and light wouldn't change early even if there were no cars going through the intersection.
That's just fair - pedestrians aren't detected either