A Chicago-area listener suggests that approaching to a yellow traffic light and deciding whether or not to go for it might be described as amberbivalence. It’s somewhat like that decision you face when coming toward what you know is a stale green light—do you gun it or brake it? This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Amberbivalence”
Listener Jack Price wrote us with a word he’d like to popularize, amberbivalence.
Amberbivalence? What’s that?
Any guess what that is? Amberbivalence?
I don’t know.
It’s the hesitation you experience while approaching a yellow light while driving, right?
I see. Can I make it?
Yeah, exactly.
Will they make it? Betty, don’t.
Yeah.
And remember when we had that conversation about stale green lights?
Yeah.
Stale green light is a light that’s just about to change.
Stale green light, right?
And you’re like, do you gun it or do you break it?
Exactly.
That’s the question.
So you have amber bivalence.
Amber bivalence.
I like that.
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