Sheep in the City

[Martin Cassini]

(Also posted at Equality Streets). Traffic controls are removing the ability of drivers and pedestrians to think for themselves. A new generation of robotic, lobotomised road-users is increasingly incapable of acting according to context, relying instead on traffic controls to guide their behaviour. The new breed of pedestrian can’t cross the road diagonally through gently-moving traffic. No, they have to make everything stop. They move like rooks on a chessboard, at right-angles, from one signalised crossing to the next. Traffic engineers love them because, like sheep, they use those railed-in "pens" (in the jargon), thus rationalising streetscape blight. And it justifies further expenditure on increasingly costly crossing systems such as Puffins, and now pedestrian countdown. Also, more and more drivers seem to drive straight at you without slowing down (I have in mind crossing Waterloo Rd on foot, which I do often). If you stand your ground, they sometimes react, but look bewildered, or aggressive, because they are on auto-pilot obeying the green light rather than the social context. Of course it all goes back to the barbaric rule of priority, which instils greater respect for a traffic light than for human life.