Tangled up in red

[Martin Cassini]

Why stop at a red light? Once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all. Seriously, why should we stop when there is no conflicting traffic? Adulthood is supposed to be about independence and responsibility. What do traffic lights and speed limits do? Outlaw independent thought and action. Remove responsibility. Infantilise us. Yesterday I had the dubious pleasure of driving through Oxford and Swindon. In Oxford especially, there is a hardly a crossing that is not governed by traffic signals. They cause continual congestion, block flow, boost emissions, produce great clumps of foreign students on traffic islands, gazing up at the lights, hardly daring to move. It’s stupefying that elected councillors and politicians defer to unelected, paid officials, and let them impose their barrage of largely counterproductive controls, all at the expense of our time, health and sanity.