The myth of the fixed code theory in the use of traffic light systems in Hong Kong

Abstract

Traffic light signals have been no more than simply one genre of road signs to provide guidance and instructions for road users in Hong Kong since they were introduced in the 1960s. However, the apparently determinate form and codified meaning within the current legal ordinances serve as the pre-existing set of abstracted rules governing the traffic order unanimously in every driving circumstance in Hong Kong, while the real-life communicative practice of these light signals and contextualized elements and constraints in the sign making process are rarely taken into account. Furthermore, as the Legislative Council once put forward the proposal of replacing the existing red-amber-green traffic light system with the counting-down red-green light system in 2008 for the sake of enhancing traffic safety, it reveals the underlying problem of semantic indeterminacy in the usage of current traffic light systems, especially the ambiguity arisen from the signification of amber lights. Despite the fact that Harris (1998) admitted the validity of a simplified and determinate form and meaning in the regulations of traffic light signals subject to ad-hoc and recursive traffic environment in daily life realm of communication, this paper is written on the purpose of initiating readers to rethink the issue that semantic indeterminacy still exists within this set of deliberately abstracted codes and thus undermines the myth of the fixed code theory proposed by the segregationists in the study of signs and hence signifies the importance of contextualization in the formation of semiological values of the traffic light signals and their cotemporal nature.