Green means... hesitate?

I was reflecting this morning, on traffic lights... while on my commute (7 miles, 17 traffic lights, the 'burbs' to downtown Newark, NJ).

Most places I have ridden, a green traffic light is a non-item... just ride on through and enjoy the ride that little bit more for it not being interrupted by that light. Most places I have ridden are, however, rural. I could pick routes that had few if any traffic lights to get to most of my destinations.

Here though, in the outskirts of Newark riding into the city I was surprised to note that I feel differently about green lights once I cross over into the city proper. My commute starts in a town and 5 traffic lights and 2.5 miles later I am in a park that has only two lights. I enjoy the park for 3 or so miles and when I leave the park I am in the city and the remaining 10 lights await me in the last couple of miles.  Those lights are somehow different.  I have hit them all on red. I have hit half of them on red. I have never hit them all on green. I wonder if the later is somehow a subconscious thing. Today, when I did hit a couple on green... it felt shady, almost like I was doing something wrong, when riding on through.  It feels more natural to stop at them and wait. I have no idea why I feel this way. It feels quite absurd to not want to ride on through a green light. Yet I can't shake the feeling.

I have only been doing this commute for a few months. I moved to the Newark area in September and it took until January for me to get the nerve up to commute in such an urban area.  I was using the train from September through December - a very convenient, and for me relatively inexpensive transit option - but also one full of people sneezing and coughing and sniffling... and one which required me to adhere to a schedule that felt inflexible. I finally told myself to stop being a baby and just do it... and low and behold it was not as scary as I thought... but now I seem to fear the green lights.