I remember a
Weekly Reader article in grade school. Some community had a traffic light with the red light counting down to when it turns green again. Never heard anything since, but it would be cool to have a countdown to green, and for that matter, red.
In the age of wireless internet it could go a step farther. When onboard nav systems come out, display the status of traffic lights you are approaching. I might have even found a desirable application for using cell phones in cars.
Of course, it would be phased in over years - too expensive otherwise. The biggest catch is there are probably not too many in the general population like us that would use such a system.
If they would at least have countdown traffic lights, that would be cool.