RIDOT Crosswalk Light Turned Red!

A rare sight to see one of these red, as people generally do not use the crosswalk button when they cross the street, instead just darting out in front of cars, since it's the law to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk regardless of there being a signal.

Anyway, these normally flash yellow (8" section at the bottom). When someone presses the button, the 8" flashing yellow immediately shuts off and the 12" steady yellow in the middle comes on for 3-5 seconds and then the red comes on and the walk signal is given to the pedestrian. Once the don't walk signal returns, there's a brief pause and the traffic signals revert to flashing yellow.

I've seen standard R-Y-G signals used for crosswalks here but that is not RIDOT's preferred set-up. A flashing yellow is more effective for crosswalks because green means "go!" and there could still be someone in the crosswalk that didn't press the button, so the driver sees the green light and there is a mental conflict. Flashing yellow means "pay attention" more so than a steady green so that's why they use it. Not sure why the bottom yellow is 8" though. Makes for a rather goofy looking signal but I've grown up with these so I like them a lot.

RIDOT also uses these at fire stations and railroad level crossings instead of standard signals. I've seen a few installations use all 12" signal sections too, with the flashing yellow being 12" like the others.