Rethinking traffic lights: new designs or elimination?

The LA Times reports on the Yanko Designattempts to redesign the traffic light. The above image is the "sand glass" by Thanva Tivawong.
Click through to the story or the designer's website for more alternatives. I like the ideas of incorporating additional information into the lights and making them better for color bling drivers.

While we are rethinking traffic lights, here is a story form yesterday's NY Times about roundabouts. Roundabouts don't need traffic lights at all, and are strangely viewed as being "too European" and confusing. Here's what Mr. Gernert has to say about them:

“Just because something works in one culture, doesn’t mean it’s going to work in another culture,” said Mr. Gernert, who teaches about world cultures at nearby Cedar Crest High School. “In our country, we don’t hang animals in our storefronts like other cultures. Food is different. Transportation, patience, people, their temperaments, are different from country to country.”

As an aside, I'm glad my son won't be studying world cultures at Cedar Crest High anytime soon.