The town of Smyrna, Tennessee has installed new traffic lights with advance warning flashers (AWF) at several intersections. These new lights are located in several locations including Old Nashville Highway at Rocky Fork Road, Lowry Street at Nolan Drive and Lowry Street at Aviation Parkway. "Studies have shown that accidents have been reduced by them. Drivers pay more attention to it, " said David King, the town's public works director, as reported in the Daily News Journal. These new traffic lights are intended to curb red-light runners. I know it certainly got my attention but not in the way intended. Please see below.
In case you are not familiar with an AWF, it is a ring of flashing lights around the red light that flashes a couple of times a second while the light is red. I encountered the AWF for the first time a few weeks ago on Old Nashville Highway at Rocky Fork Road. I was on my way to pick up my son at Smyrna High School. I was totally unprepared for the AWF. As I sat at the red light, I began to see the white circle of light quickly flashing around the red light. At first I thought I was simply seeing a reflection of the sunlight off of my windshield. When it continued to flash, I got kind of freaked out. I glanced at the car in the next lane as if I was looking for some reassurance that I was not the only one seeing the flashing lights. The driver next to me was on her cell phone and looking into her purse. She was so engrossed in her conversation that I do not think she ever looked up at the light. So now I'm feeling really weird - "Am I the only one seeing this light?" is what I thought to myself. I then thought that my contacts must be dry so I quickly pulled my handy-dandy bottle of eyedrops and dropped one in each eye. I closed my eyes only to reopen them to the still flashing lights. Ok. More drops are obviously needed, I thought. I ever so quickly dowsed each one of my eyes with 2-3 more drops each. Finally the light had turned green and I slowly progressed down Old Nashville Highway. As I am nearly blind from the drowning of my eyes, cars are honking at me as I am driving slower than Morgan Freeman driving Miss Daisy. I am a sight! The eyedrops are running down my face causing my makeup to smear. I look like a clown who got in a fight and lost.
I inch my way down Old Nashville Highway to Smyrna High. 
Once at the school, as I am still thinking that I must be hallucinating, I allow my newly driver permitted 16-year-old son to drive us back home. PURE EXCITEMENT are the two best words to describe the experience of riding shotgun with my son driving. As we are coming back up Old Nashville Hwy, I am secretly hoping that we get caught by the red light so that I can ask my son if he sees the flashing light or if I am experiencing some sort of metabolic imbalance. No such luck though. We coast thru the light at about 35 mph alongside other traffic. When we get to the next light, it is red but there are no flashing lights. At the following two lights, there are no flashing lights here either so I am convinced that I am having an out of body experience. When we get home, I pull out my blood pressure cuff as I must be having a stroke. My blood pressure is fine. I begin to talk to myself at this point. "I'll just lay down and everything will be alright in the morning". "You're ok, I'm ok, we're ok". I eventually calm down enough later that night to sleep. I still have said nothing to my family about my supposed hallucinations.
Imagine my relief when I see this article in the Daily News Journal a few days later. The town thinks these lights will help curb red-light runners huh? Well these lights may certainly increase admissions at the local emergency room and/or psychiatric unit in my case. I hope everyone is as happy as I am to know that Smyrna Has New Traffic Lights.
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