Are you suggesting I'm doing worse on Google Captchas because I consider pedestrian crossing lights as a form of traffic lights but Americans don't?

Possibly. I think people in the US strongly associate "traffic" with cars and don't generally think of the crosswalk indicators as "traffic lights".

As an American I totally agree with that. I would never think to include the cross walk lights.

If you asked for “signal lights” I could see it. But not traffic.

Best choices to pick on captcha are not what you think is pictured but what you think most people think is pictured.

Since about 60% of the visitors of most English-speaking websites are American, I assume that requires finding the American answer. But that requires me to jump not just a language barrier but also a cultural barrier to figure out nuances like "what constitutes a traffic light? Do pedestrian lights count? Do the poles and cables count, or just the light-emitting part?" "What constitutes a street sign" "Is a Mecedes Sprinter with windows a bus (it's one of wikipedia's example of a minibus)?".

In the end the known unknowns aren't that bad, just assume laziness and choose whatever checks the least boxes. But the unknown unknowns are regular culture shocks. Like pedestrian lights not being considered traffic lights.

Buses are bad, but I feel trucks are even worse. Or actually vehicles in general. What does a Venn diagram of cars and trucks look like? Are Vespas and trikes motorcycles?

I’ve never had an issue, but I’m American. So if it’s expecting American centric answers that would make perfect sense.

So many not what most people would pick, but what Americans would pick?