I seem to have written a post about roadwork traffic cycles

I’m such a weirdo…

Had to sit in traffic today. Really horrible, sticky, frustrating traffic. Got through it eventually but it took about fifteen minutes to move a few yards and eventually get through the badly programmed traffic lights.

The fact that there were four-way traffic lights over a long stretch of road was bad enough, but since the lights were changing too quickly, this exacerbated the problem.

There was, of course, a chap in a fluorescent high-vis jacket leaning against a wall in the middle of all the congestion just looking on. I’m not sure what he was in charge of. If he was in charge of making sure the lights were doing their job, then he wasn’t doing his job.

My problem is that I’m a fixer. If I see a problem, I like to solve it. I can’t easily cast aside problems, even if they are not officially my responsibility. I suppose I have the tendency to think that if I can see a problem and I know how to fix it, then it is my problem.

Why would you not want things around you to operate efficiently for the benefit of others, regardless of the benefit on yourself?

I suppose the subconscious answer of many to this question would be “because I don’t care about other people.”

So what would I have done if I was that chap in the high-vis jacket? I would have wanted to adjust the timing of the lights. Why? Because leaving one set of lights on green for longer lets a larger number of cars flow through more efficiently. It’s basic logic.

Each change of the lights wastes time. Cars need time to pass through the light controlled section. Let’s say it takes 30 seconds for the cars to travel from one end to the other, every time the lights change, this 30 seconds is unavoidably “wasted” in terms of road usage.

If a green light only lasts 30 seconds as well, then half the available time in a single light change cycle is wasted.

Instead, if you left a green light active for 2 minutes, only 20% of the cycle (30 seconds out of 150 seconds) would be wasted.

Another factor is that cars move more quickly through lights if they’re already moving. It’s so obvious I can’t believe I’m writing this.

Actually, why am I writing this? I guess I’m committed now so I’ll barrel on.

Anyway, changing the lights more often for shorter cycles means more drivers being slow off the mark or even stalling. This clogs up the traffic even more.

Now, I’m no traffic scientist. But this just seems obvious. Why wouldn’t someone with half a brain managing those lights just adjust the timing. Traffic lights have been around for decades. They’ve been used on, quite probably, millions of sets of roadworks.

If they “can’t be adjusted”, then why not?

If they’re “just programmed like that”, then why?

Just do it right. It’s simple. And you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment by fixing a problem rather than just standing by watching the situation descend into gridlock.

Sadly, the chap in the high-vis jacket isn’t reading this.

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