information aesthetics

Might the extra information about the cycle lead to potential abuse? The extra information allows one to more accurately judge the timing of the transitions; one might be more likely to run an early yellow, or a late red.

The ambiguity of the exact moment of state transition in "boolean" traffic lights may discourage such such corner-cutting.

I remember seeing these on a childhood trip to either Adelaide or Melbourne in the '60s. AFAICR they were in use in parallel with conventional traffic lights. I always assumed that they were being used to indicate a new phasing arrangement.
They do have the disadvange of not being able to support dynamic phasing.

neat,
yes there seems to be a danger of abuse, but it reminds me of the pedestrian way countdowns in the netherlands, deHague I think.
I wonder if there is a danger documented. People might cut corners, but at the same time, traffic could flow better, as people could prepare better for the 'green' phase

Around here, the lights are timed such that the the "don't walk" light flashes 12 times, then goes solid for .5 seconds before your traffic light changes(to tell when not only when the light is going green, but if you watch the parallel ones, when it's going red). At some intersections you can see them flash from quite a distance. Also, the left turn lights crossing your direction wait 8 seconds after the last car crosses the inductive sensor before your light changes.
Drive safely, pay attention...

The amber and green are not really necessary, one red signal will do, this can pulse before going off, i.e. to the 'green', 'go' state. A fair amount of 'leccy' would be saved with the red-only system.

Only trouble with a red-only system is that there's no way to distinguish between a 'go' signal and a broken signal - generally speaking, it's preferrable to design things so that they fail into the safest configuration.

Too late. Here in Miami there are countdown timers on the crosswalks and you can clearly see how much time you got before light turns yellow. Not exactly the same but effective nonetheless.

I would worry about the transitions. From any kind of distance there could be some disagreement as to whether or not the the pointer was on the red or the green when it was moving between the two. Lots of wrecks with this system.

Traffic Lights with Digital Displays?

Possible Solution: Longer Lag Between Red and Green.

That could reduce possible collisions between red light runners and green light riders.