Most afternoons, on my way to get groceries, I try and cross the street going around Russell Square in London, which is notoriously difficult to do. There, you don’t find the typical cars-moving-no-faster-than-chickens, but vehicles are spaced such that just when you have decided to run for it, another car comes screaming round the corner of the square. Luckily, they have a traffic light.

Luckily? You press the button and nothing happens. You press it again (maybe it did not register?), but again nothing happens. Then you remember that there are some traffic lights that take a while to ‘recharge’ just after a switch, to allow the queue of cars to clear. Not with this one. It simply waits for nothing. 10 seconds feel like a long time when you are waiting for the signal to change, but trust me, this traffic light laughs at 10 seconds!

So while you slowly get annoyed, you have plenty of time to wonder whether it actually makes a difference, from a scientific, traffic-flow-management-point-of-view, if cars are stopped instantly, or a bit later. Every afternoon I come to the same conclusion: heck no! However, it certainly makes a difference for the pedestrians. Judging by the barrage of road safety campaigns on British television, posters and billboards depicting movie-stars-to-be getting smashed, you would think fast-changing traffic lights are way up on Ken Livingston’s list. If I got the traffic flow management bit wrong, and there really is a hidden meaning behind the long wait, at least show some LEDs at the end of the tunnel and introduce a count-down system like they have in Japan (see pic below).

Still reading? I am still waiting. But now I finally had enough and cross the red light between two racing buses. Just then, and I swear I could hear a chuckle, the light changes.