Traffic Lights

Automated state sanctioned signals are no substitute for human judgement and tolerance for the ways of others spreads happiness.

I was in the van with a chap called Thor the other day and he expressed delight that I routinely ignore red traffic lights. He told me that he knows an airline pilot who has an equally healthy disregard for these judgement sapping devices. Transport workers united in the spirit of ‘more like guidelines than actual rules’.

I have driven in and out of Grangemouth (Scotland) for the last 7 years and one of the large roundabouts just off the motorway has recently been upgraded downgraded with the installation of traffic lights.

Roundabouts are wonderfully simple facilitators of traffic flow at junctions: You give way to the right and the curve means that you have a clear view to see when it is safe to proceed. Alas, it would appear that traffic planners don’t trust us to carry out this simple task, so we are increasingly commanded by automated blinking authority.

The absurdity of traffic lights at roundabouts - especially at night - first dawned on me when I began driving regularly at night in 2009. There is a large roundabout (Kilbowie) on the Great Western Road just outside Glasgow where I found myself stopped at a red light in the early hours of the morning; I thought to myself, I can see that the roundabout is clear, what am I waiting for? The answer was nothing other than for an automated signal to go green. I decided that this was a slavishly absurd waste of time so I checked for police and off I went. It was most liberating.

I have ignored the binary commands of traffic lights for the last 13 years. If I can see that the way is clear then I go. Touch wood, I have never received a conviction for ‘jumping’ the lights.

Now, I am not saying that there are no occasions when traffic lights can be useful to ease the flow of heavy traffic. This is where discretion and judgement come to the fore; our faculties that the government would rather we didn’t exercise.

In pursuing my policy of courteous and common sense motoring, I have discovered that my strategy can invoke the ire of some motorists. For example, if I pass a car waiting at a red light, my disobedience can elicit vigorous flashing of headlights.

Although I can’t be certain, I imagine that this is an attempted citizen’s admonishment of my outrageous contempt for the authority of the lights; How dare I be so brazen in the face of the law. The lights are executing traffic law and I am not complying. Even though my decision has no impact whatsoever on the law abiding motorist waiting dutifully at the red light, some still get angry.

I have encountered similar ego induced rage when wanting to overtake other cars on both two way and single track roads in Scotland. It seems entirely obvious to me that if you catch another car then you are going faster. Overtaking is a process which seems to benefit both the overtaker and the overtaken. The former carries on at the speed he or she is comfortable with and the latter doesn’t have another car following close behind. One might say this is a win win situation. Alas no, some people seem to enjoy trying to prevent people from overtaking.

The most obvious not-so-subtle tactic deployed by the closet authoritarian is to speed up on straight overtaking opportunities. It’s almost like they’re saying, “I am driving at a safe and legal speed and you shouldn’t be going any faster; therefore I have the right to slow you down!” It’s all about ego.

Some people genuinely believe that they have the right to arbitrate on the speed of others. Since we have had the van - and I tend to drive a bit slower, I’ve noticed more cars catching us up. I slow down, put my left indicator on and allow any car or motorbike to pass. Almost always, I get a ‘thank you’ flash on the hazard lights. It feels good to be nice when you can.

I loved driving in various countries in Asia where the horn is used to signal your desire to overtake. Unlike in the UK, the sounding of your horn is not taken as a signal of aggression but merely of intent. You are just saying, “can I pass please?” More often than not, your signal results in the facilitating of a safe overtaking manoeuvre. I think New Zealand even has a law or perhaps an etiquette for slower vehicles to pull over and allow overtaking. I think respecting the choice of others on what speed they wish to drive at is a good thing. It spreads happiness and makes aggression far less likely. There is no need to feel a bruised ego just because somebody else wants to drive faster than you. Live and let live.

When thinking about our actions, perhaps the more pertinent question to ask is how they affect others rather than whether or not they are legal. Respect for different opinions would be an unmitigated good thing.

If we start on the roads then maybe the spirit of acknowledging alternative views may spread. As we have seen with ‘lockdowns’, ‘masks’ and the experimental gene therapy (‘vaccines’), always following what the state says can be a terrible mistake. Next time you are waiting at a red light ask yourself, does waiting at this light make any sense right now? If it doesn’t then drive on and feel liberated from the tentacles of the state.