Both authors of this blog are Germans (and drive). One of the first challenges met by German drivers in America is to find the traffic lights. In Germany traffic lights are always placed close to the stop line, i.e. the line on the road where you are supposed to stop when the light shows red. If the lights were hanging somewhere above the road, the car at the front of the line would not see them, that's why the traffic lights in Germany are commonly on the side of the road (for the cars further back there is often a secondary set of lights above the road out of the line of sight of the first car's driver).
Things are a little different over here in America. On most crossings a set of four lights - one for each direction - is placed hanging in mid air above the middle of the crossing roads. That's a little confusing at first for us German drivers because we expect to be able to roll up all the way to the lights. The light shown in the picture does a better job, it's right above the stop line.
Generally traffic is much more relaxed in America than in Germany and there is more space on the roads for less cars so driving is really easy for anyone used to racing along the Autobahn.