Red Light, Green Light.

A silly game I play with kids just learning to swim where I have them kicking on the side of the pool. Splashing and giggling is a must, but the kids are at my mercy, the stop when I say red light, go when I say green light, and its really not any more complicated than that. Its funny how when you get older, the scenario changes, and it’s a little bit more complicated, but not by much.

Most of you who read this know what I’m talking about, the joy of driving on a developed road with stop signs, turn signals, and traffic jams. We wait for the signal to stop or go, but it always feels like there’s a lot more stopping involved, which we don’t want to do. My issue with older traffic lights rest in the annoying unnecessary wait times. The left turn at 1am across the major street that takes 3 minutes to get, even though there is no one coming, the red light at the intersection that isn’t even developed, or a personal favorite, the green light I have, but can’t use because the traffic in front of is stopped by a red light (Golf/Emerson and McCormick in Evanston, IL)

I know that the technology is out there to avoid these situations, coordinated traffic patterns, motion detectors and intelligence. But the problem persists, year after year, undoubtedly due to cost associated with replacing all of those circuits that control the billions of stop lights all over the world. But as a city planner, who in their right mind would not include the technology to eliminate these frustrating experiences? or what about the repairs that i see being done to older lights, but never get improved?

Any way you put it, its better for everyone if we have more efficient traffic systems, lower stress, lower emissions, fewer situations where I don't feel bad about breaking the law.