All the traffic lights must be the wrong colour...

[RealUnimportant]

Despite working in public transportation, I have to drive to/from work because 1) there's no viable route that would take less than 4 times as long to get me there, and 2) if there's works on it would take even longer or even become practically impossible to reach my place of work in a timely manner. As such, I see all manner of idiocy at all times of the day & night... And I can't hold back any longer!

The biggest timesink on my commute is traffic lights. A few years back I moved from a side street on one side of a local main road to one on the other side, fractionally closer to the station where I work. This cut out 3 sets of traffic lights & dropped my commute by an average of 10 minutes - my all-time-best is now in the region of 7 minutes for a 4 mile urban commute, but it takes some magical timing to accomplish that. (My longest commute times come on Saturdays when I'm working in the afternoon; it can take me 10 minutes just to complete the last half-mile on those days!)

Anyway. After years of driving the same route day after day, I've come to the conclusion that some of the lights must not be the right colours, as there's no other way to explain the behaviour I see:

• Pulling up 2 or 3 car lengths away from the lights then creep slowly forward, never actually stopping = the lights cannot be red enough.
• Waiting until the light is in our favour before even considering to start pre-launch checks (handbrake, clutch, etc.) = the lights cannot be green enough.

I swear, Rudy Rodd must be driving some of these cars, because the only thing I can think of is that they're waiting for the lights to go Supergreen... And the thing is a lot of the lights have traffic flow sensors, so if you dawdle before pulling away then the sensors will kick in and it'll presume there's heavy traffic preventing you from pulling away, so it'll cycle the lights back to red so traffic on the crossing roads can have a chance. So many people are so used to seeing the lights change after just 2 or 3 cars have gone through that they then start justifying their slow reactions with "well, they're just going to change back straight away anyway", while those of us with an ounce of common sense are left chewing on the steering wheel while we wait up to 3 minutes for our turn to come again! Yes, 3 minutes isn't an eternity, but when it's wasting away your precious leisure time (or possibly making you late(r) to work) then it feels like one. Then multiply that by how many sets of lights we traverse daily...

(Bear in mind that we use a 4-pattern cycle on the traffic lights here: Red, Red&Amber, Green, Amber. Driver training teaches that you should be making ready to depart when you see Red&Amber; even if I had the handbrake on and Neutral selected, my wheels have usually started rolling by the time Green is lit.)

Sorry it's not a more exciting post, but I just needed to get this out of my head.

[Food Lady]

I am finding not driving to be inconvenient, but a lot less stressful. Intersections just confuse people, and this one even more so! I'd be tempted to take the long way to avoid this one.

[RealUnimportant]

Sadly, London is a collection of millennia-old goat tracks tied together by lit junctions & punctuated by more lit crossings. I can't think of a single stretch of road within 10 miles that doesn't have at least 3 sets of lights per mile...

[HawaiianShirts]

*Pulling up 2 or 3 car lengths away from the lights then creep slowly forward, never actually stopping = the lights cannot be red enough.

This!

I have an aunt who does this, except she comes to a complete stop, and then rolls an inch or two every few seconds until the light changes. I once asked her why. She said she didn't even know she was doing it.