Tuesday, October 13, 2009

My take on traffic lights




Have you ever been driving on the road and see a traffic light far away that is green? You continue driving and as you are getting closer to the light, it suddenly turns yellow, with no warning at all! Then you have to make a very quick decision: do I accelerate more to catch the last milliseconds of the yellow light, or do I hit the brakes hard and pray that I won't end up in the middle of the intersection.
Don't you hate it when that happens? Well, I don't like to use the word hate, but in this case I'll use it. I hate traffic lights in the US.

If I ever become the President of the United States (which I don't think possible), one of the first things I would do is: change traffic lights to the way they work in Mexico.

Yep. You see, this is how lights work over there: When the light is green, you continue driving peacefully because you know that it is not going to suddenly change to a yellow light then a second later to red. Instead, green lights start BLINKING (the magic word) when they are about to turn yellow. They blink three times, then there's two seconds of yellow and then red. So when you see the traffic light far away and you notice the green light is blinking, you'll start lowering your  speed calmly, without waiting for a surprise.

So my whole point is that we need a sign, a little hint, that will tell us when the green light will turn yellow. I'm just writing this because it has been in my mind since forever and I'm tired of complaining to the air.
Thanks for reading my complaint. =)

3 comments:

Blair said...

Wow, that sounds like a great solution..never heard of it!

Alexis D. said...

what a great idea. i often run the lights, and then see a car or 2 after me run it too! i worry that they may get in an accident, so the next few lights I slow down at yellow. but, then i get frustrated with lights and run the yellow again - what a vicious circle!

Unknown said...

The only problem is that you'll have the same problem that we do now with the yellow light. I see it all the time in mexico...people just see the green light flashing and speed up even if they run the yellow light. In the US..yellow light means hurry up. In mexico, flashing green means hurry up. its kinda cool, but it still doesnt help.