Delinquency inspired by the law

[Martin Cassini]

The other day I was crossing the road at a junction with a traffic light but no pedestrian signal. A woman driver in a Golf turning left into my path hooted at me in anger. I stood my ground and tried to say that the Highway Code tells drivers to give way to pedestrians at junctions. "But I've got a green light!" she screamed, and drove off. That's how the rules of the road turn reasonable people into delinquents. Who would support a system that inspires greater respect for a traffic light than for human life? Policymakers and traffic engineers. Police and politicians. Most of us. Traffic control has done a pretty comprehensive job of selling its specious system to an unquestioning public.