Traffic Lights - Too Dumb!

They have only three colors, out of which two mean the same thing to the motorist. Think about it from the perspective of pedestrians waiting to cross the road, who wait for them to go "Red", and then run for their life while crossing due to the fear of them turning "Green" and the cars running them over. This happens in US, but even in UK where they go "Orange" before going "Green", the pedestrians are at the same risk, because the devils in the car wait to put the "pedal-to-the-floor" as soon as the "Red" goes away! In the US, just to start with, how about making them go Orange before they go Green? And then globally, thinking about one more color which would mean "Stay" for the motorists, and "run-if-you-want-to-stay-alive" for the pedestrians?

Not to mention that even after this change, traffic lights would continue to be dumb, as most (I believe ~99%, but haven't counted) of them continue to be running on a timer, as opposed to smart sensors!

***Thinking about the small pedestrian signals out there...? Come on lets be realistic! Who cares about them? They are "Red" most of the time!