The Truth about Traffic

[Martin Cassini]

Driving in London after a break, I was re-awoken to the stupefying incompetence of a system that stops you time and again at one red light after another, and then makes you wait an age for no reason. It is clearly, "criminally" responsible for delaying us and producing chronic congestion. If I drive on after seeing nothing is coming, am I a criminal? The law says I am. I'm an RLJ = a 'red light jumper'. If the police stopped me, I'd say, Give me a good reason why I should wait when nothing is happening on the junction. If they said, "Because the light is red", I'd say, that's no reason. That's like telling a child not to do something, "Because I say so." It's no argument. There is no justification for our inept and inefficient traffic control system. Successive administrations which have allowed it to develop are failing dismally in their duty of care to the public and the planet.

[Ian Perry]

The Highway Code states, "If the traffic lights are not working, proceed with caution." In situations such as on a long, straight, empty street, where the local council has installed temporary traffic lights, due to a single manhole cover in the road being lifted, how long does it take a motorist to decide that the lights are not working?